
Class BT^Z . 

Book J^ri 

Copyright N?. : 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 



HUMAN EQUITY 



^ 



W. A. STURDY 



AUTHOR OF 

RIGHT AND WRONG" -THE OPEN DOOR 

-THE DEGENERACY OF ARISTOCRACY" 

-THE ECONOMY OF EDUCATION" 



BOSTON : 

J. D. BONNELL & SON 

1911 



CorTK-IGHT 191 1- 

W. A- STURDY. 
All Rights Reserved. 



©CIA> 



Preface. 

In presenting this book to a possible reader, the 
purpose is, to consider the difference between spon- 
taneous revelation and what is acquired by external 
contact. If no such difference is recognized to exist 
the book has no more meaning than blank paper. It 
should be allowed, however, that an affirmative opin- 
ion is possible or the book itself would be impossible. 
Neither the style or who says it is true has any bear- 
ing upon the general principle of what is true. Also 
to observe what is not, without recognizing what is, 
would be equivalent to denying a personal revelation 
of any character for it would be equally unfortunate 
for a negative if the positive has no existence. 



Index to Chapters. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

I. PERFECT KNOWLEDGE i 

II. FIGURATIVE COMMUNICATION 10 

III. THE UNIT OF PERSONALITY 20 

IV. SIMPLE UNDERSTANDING 30 

V. AGNOSTICISM 38 

VI. TECHNICAL EXCLUSIVENESS 47 

VII. THE BALANCE OF POWER 56 

VIII. SUBJECTIVE INFLUENCE 65 

IX. NATURAL PROGRESS 74 

X. MATERIAL PROGRESS 83 

XL PARADOXICAL ABSURDITIES 93 

XII. DEFINITE ABSURDITIES 102 

XIII. ILLUSIVE QUALITY 112 

XIV. INTRINSIC PRINCIPLES 121 

XV. DIFFICULTIES 130 

XVI. SACRED PERSONALITY 140 

XVII. INSTITUTIONAL QUACKERY 149 

XVIII. ADVANTAGE OF CULTURE 159 

XIX. THE DISPOSITION TO COMMAND 169 

XX. SOMETHING FOR NOTHING 179 

XXL VAGUE ASSERTIONS 189 

XXII. PARALYZED CONVICTIONS 199 

XXIII. THE EQUITY OF EXCHANGE 209 

XXIV. SUPERFICIAL REPUTATION 218 

XXV. EXTRAVAGANT EXPECTATION 228 

XXVI. THE DISPOSITION TO COMMAND 238 

XXVII. CENSORIOUS CRITICISM 248 



INDEX TO CHAPTERS — Continued. 



CHAPTER PAGE 

XXVIII. NEGATIVE SCIENCE 257 

XXIX. MORAL SUASION 266 

XXX. THE WORSHIP OF FORM 275 

XXXI. POLITICAL DESPOTISM 284 

XXXII. POPULAR OPINION 293 

XXXIII. THE COLORED RACE 303 

XXXIV. IDEAL SPECULATION 313 

XXXV. THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS 323 

XXXVI. MORAL COURAGE 333 

XXXVII ANCIENT REFERENCES 343 

XXXVIII. MODERN REFERENCES 352 

XXXIX SUMMARY 362 



HUMAN EQUITY 



HUMAN EQUITY 



K, 



CHAPTER I. 

PERFECT KNOWLEDGE 



nowledge is God, it is more than theory, doctrine 
or belief. It is the essence that knows, and there- 
fore the ultimate limit of everything that can be 
known. The reason Knowledge has baffled theology, 
philosophy, and science, is because it is a Supreme 
Power from which no abstract can be deducted. It 
is the analyzing Power, hence an ultimate principle 
that will not permit of analyzing itself, since experi- 
ence and conscious existence is an individual concep- 
tion that will not permit of the most vague specula- 
tion, that universal humanity ever become cognizant 
of knowledge from any other source or method. 

Polity, doctrines, schemes, notions, opinions, and 
beliefs are all abstracts of hypothetical speculation, 
practically using the power of knowledge in the vain 
effort to betray its virtue. Because words are contin- 
gencies of progress, written language cannot trans- 
cend or equal Perfect Knowledge ; it is the reason why 
language is imperfect and inadequate when used in 
search of even a theory of knowledge. To grope in 
the dark for a light is to seek blindly and to search 
for a light, in the light, is more foolish than blind. 
The communion of Spirit is the Perfect Knowledge 
that philosophers have vainly tried to account for and 
with equal persistency, the polity of greed not only 



2 HUMAN EQUITY 

goes to its own destruction but would consign the en- 
tire human race to a condition of darkness. 

Light corresponds with light, Spirit with Spirit, 
Darkness with darkness, Polity with polity, Sys- 
tems with systems, Doctrines with doctrines, etc., but 
what is most important to understand is the fact that 
no symbol has ever been invented by man, to express 
the invisible relation between man and God. Militant 
policy has contended against the power of Knowledge 
since it was possible to frighten the timid and attract 
the credulous. The man in darkness is not deprived 
of Perfect Knowledge, he also has an advantage, that 
polity can never bestow upon a man in the light. No 
child or adult needs to be told what Perfect Knowl- 
edge is, since the authority of experience is the con- 
viction, that to know is God, while the contingency of 
policy and belief are not a prerequisite of Knowledge. 

The polemic activity of the literally learned are so 
thoroughly allied to politics that such refuse to recog- 
nize that Knowledge and God are identical. All gov- 
ernments betray their own necessity since the great 
mass of humanity are too timid to assert their direct 
knowledge of God and the learned will not yield their 
political advantage to the same end. Two hundred 
years ago, to have directly asserted that Knowledge 
was God, would have been as dangerous as to defy 
a mad bull. The philosophers of the period gave evi- 
dence that they knew more than they dared to express 
in simple language. There is no better evidence 
needed than the reciprocity of fear between the strong 
and the weak. The fear of the strong, that the weak 
might discover they were equally strong, would be a 
tacit admission of fear on the part of the strong. 



HUMAN EQUITY 3 

The equity of God identical with the power of 
knowledge is a principle apart from belief, for to 
know is the ultimatum of belief, it being a contradic- 
tion of consciousness for a person to believe he knows. 
A person can deny a belief in God, but it is only the 
figure of speech that is false which would equally 
apply to the effort of making knowledge an attribute 
of God rather than honestly admitting the omnipo- 
tence of God, and the equity of individual conception. 

Belief is a contingency of fear and what is often 
termed an attribute of God is a hypothetical illusion 
to prove the inequality of man, and profit by his fear, 
that is too often encouraged for the sake of the profit. 
To analyze an attribute that is presumed to be ab- 
stracted from a state of perfection to prove its imper- 
fection is a political subterfuge regardless of the emi- 
nence of the man proclaiming his ability to perform 
the feat. It is plain therefore that a person can be in 
possession of Perfect Knowledge, while the contin- 
gency of fear will so dominate his acts, as to make 
him a ready victim of the very object that excites 
his fear. 

A person thoroughly crystalized in esoteric termi- 
nology and technical structures of method is power- 
less to command another in whatever conception of 
God that is presented to his mind. Freedom is in- 
separable at the present time with whatever pertains 
to God, knowledge, religion or education. There is 
no historical proof that political authority has ever 
been able to control the relation between God and 
man ; in fact, the evidence is entirely to the contrary, 
that is (technically speaking) the relation has always 
been empirical to every individual with courage 



4 HUMAN EQUITY 

enough to assert it either in act or word. Political 
authority pertains to the protection of society, it hav- 
ing no relation to God or knowledge other than what 
it usurps by its own fiat. 

To know God or not know Him, is the individual 
choice of will from which there is no escape. The re- 
lation between God and man is prior to the relation 
between man and man ; besides it is a state of perfec- 
tion, compared to the imperfections of written lan- 
guage. Man must choose between his relation with 
God as directly conceived by experience, or that de- 
rived from his relations with his fellow men. There 
is no escape; and when a person discovers he has a 
clear title to the private communion of Spirit, he can- 
not deny the privilege to another without an irrever- 
ence for the knowledge which revealed the fact to 
himself. The relation between man and man is sep- 
arated by policy in a multitude of forms merely to 
promote material movement, the motor Spirit being 
the energy employed to make the movement. The 
same knowledge which reveals to an individual the 
power of self-motion, also reveals the sense of feeling 
and taste, when the will is discovered to be a factor 
in directing material movement at the pleasure of the 
corporeal person. 

It is the simplest form of learning to recognize the 
primitive character of knowing by personal concep- 
tion, of more consequence than what books can teach 
for the reason they could not teach anything except 
for the primitive conception derived from Spiritual 
Knowledge. Freedom is more than a permission 
from one man to another, or even the State, to con- 
fer it upon either citizen or subject. "Obey your mas- 



HUMAN EQUITY 5 

ter" is a mere figure of speech, it has no authority 
of supercedure over the spiritual command followed 
by punishment at each and every disobedience. The 
political effort of the ancients to establish a theoretic 
government for the purpose of perpetuating compul- 
sory servitude proves the slave to have been in touch 
with God in common equity with the master, who 
was defying the same touch. If a Theocracy had been 
as justifiable in its Divine appointment as the relation 
of individual man to God, freedom would have contin- 
ued to be a sentiment, and humanity inferior to the 
lowest animal. Because a child is weak in its period 
of adolescence, as G. Stanley Hall so ably declares to 
the world, it is no more reason why it should be 
trained to serve those who were more developed in 
knowledge ; what was claimed to be a special privilege 
by the Ancients. 

Attractions and fear were the only principles by 
which the ancient slave could be utilized. It is com- 
mon to children, which any individual can determine 
without being told by another. The transfer of 
human bondage from the individual to state owner- 
ship, involves the same principle of slavery. The 
pretence of teaching freedom and knowledge could be 
explained as an exchange of service, but the recog- 
nized principle of contract would be in contempt 
since only one party to the contract was admitted. 
That is, the child by reason of its weakness has no 
voice in whatever method of training is thrust upon 
him. To lay aside policy and dogmatic prejudice and 
permit the light of knowledge to assert itself, would 
be at least a recognition of a common origin. A di- 
versity of opinion in what constitutes knowledge has 



6 HUMAN EQUITY 

no bearing upon the first conception of light that is 
just as much unsought as birth itself. The light may 
be termed subjective or objective, also the child may- 
be considered as belonging to its parents, yet the child 
cannot be deprived of the one circumstance that light 
reveals ; and if that is not knowledge the word is false 
and meaningless. 

There is no single moment between light and dark- 
ness, or life and death that does not belong to God, 
thus all that man knows is God, for no man has ever 
proved himself able to bestow the power to see upon 
another. With this fact in view, what greater wrong 
could an adult person do to a child than to win its 
confidence and seek to transcend its direct relation by 
diverting it to that of designing man? 

When visible crowns are the ultimate end of all pol- 
icy, it is not strange that youth can be led away from 
the invisible, of which the power of revealed knowl- 
edge can only imagine in weak expectation. That 
every seed does not develop a perfect bloom could not 
justly be charged to the general principle of repro- 
duction. For which reason the individual could not 
justly demand more than what the touch of God re- 
veals direct ; if not more than knowledge certainly 
no less. The direct relation between individual man 
and God is an invisible crown that has no comparison 
to the visible made so attractive with a few feathers 
that multitudes will chase it until reality is entirely 
forsaken. Knowledge in the absence of a choice of 
conduct would be as useless as a policy of attraction 
with no objects to attract. Also a reasonable person 
would soon realize that he could discover more by his 
own light than to follow in the wake of policy and be- 



HUMAN EQUITY 7 

come content in being enveloped in another shadow. 
Of course this is heresy so far as policy is concerned, 
but when the individual is compelled to be born, and 
then told as soon as the sense of hearing is revealed 
that he will always be compelled to serve at the com- 
mand of others, it would be a reasonable query to de- 
termine for what purpose he was given a light that 
was not solicited, and then taught by his predecessor 
to blow it out for fear he might see something to en- 
danger his future welfare. 

The communion of Spirit cannot be studied on doc- 
trinal lines or from any system of policy, for policy 
and Christianity were never comfortable bed-fellows. 
The outer and inner world constitutes the differential 
to which education is strictly confined. What God re- 
veals to the unit of humanity is beyond the province 
of man to reveal to each other. It presents the objec- 
tive to the subjective and embraces the imperfection 
of language to bridge this impassable gulf. The auth- 
ority of the object over the subject has always been 
the incentive of activity; always depending upon the 
submission of the subject to the object. Association, 
therefore, is no less a fact than the communion of 
Spirit imprisoned within the individual man. The 
wisdom of this feature of human equity is sublime, 
it surpasses the most brilliant attempt of man to es- 
tablish a theory of knowledge in the tentative effort 
to discover the truth as it is often expressed. 

To admit that the Truth was revealed to every unit 
of humanity would be extremely impolitic for a po- 
litical man to do, for his relation as guardian of society 
would be immediately advanced as a reason why indi- 
vidual independence would be treated as absurd. It 



8 HUMAN EQUITY 

would be overlooked, however, that no better proof 
exists of the independence of each and every person, 
than what is proclaimed in denying it. Because one 
individual is of such slight importance as a part of the 
whole, that egoism would be the insignia of reproach 
for anyone to assert that he knows more about God 
than any man could impart to him. There is no bet- 
ter evidence that a person has completely surrendered 
to the objective feature of existence than a display of 
ostentation in contempt for what he terms "inferiors" 
since he never tires in expressing admiration for his 
"superiors." He presents himself as an object to his 
"inferiors" while at the same time he is a subject to 
his "superiors." It is a mere figure of speech concern- 
ing etymology more than concrete Truth. It was 
more than Aristotle could explain how one man could 
be superior to another when a common source could 
not be disposed of except by the coining of a word 
signifying phenomenon or a mysterious appearance, 
which modern philosophers affirm to be the "un- 
known." 

If policy is embraced with clinging affection, the 
search for the Truth could be deferred, since the at- 
tention would be too preoccupied with a positive to 
permit of a negative disturbance. In addition to the 
revelation of knowledge man is endowed with ambi- 
tion to progress in distinction from the animals. The 
man who seeks to transcend the wisdom of God by 
refusing to acknowledge his omniparity, betrays an 
absurdity to the observation of the commonest mortal, 
even if he is politically compelled to remain silent. 
Professor G. Stanley Hall, Ph.D., L.L. D., has discov- 
ered that a "common laborer" can perform his duty 



HUMAN EQUITY 9 

with a maximum of five hundred words, while many 
thousand can be imparted to the plastic receptacle of 
youth; for what purpose appears to be deferred to 
inference, which can be deducted from the fact as 
stated. The possibility of becoming more than a com- 
mon laborer would be inferred as the incentive for 
the tacking on of such a multitude of words with in- 
ference again that enough could be stored in the mem- 
ory to transcend the simple knowledge that God be- 
stows impartially to all. This does not imply a pur- 
pose to dispute the fact as stated, but the absence of 
facts not stated is the immediate observation. For, if 
the common laborer was inferior by reason of his be- 
ing deficient in the objective symbols externally im- 
parted, it appeared to be overlooked that the common 
laborer is equally dependent upon thought subjective, 
as another with a profusion of symbols derived from 
thoughts objective. 

It is the effort to transcend the power of God by 
reason of the faculty of progress, that has been a uni- 
versal phenomenon. Because as a rule man grows 
important as he progresses, he has never succeeded 
either from science or political effort to make a god 
by the common Power which is the true God. 



IO HUMAN KOUITY 



CHAPTER II. 

FIGURATIVE COMMUNICATION. 

In the absence of any method of communicating 
thought, the relation between man and man would be 
a condition of equity by reason of the inability to make 
signs and figures of comparison by which means a 
correspondence is possible. If every presentation of 
an object revealed a positive character to whatever 
subject it came in contact with, it would be a. state of 
equity that would make the communion of thought 
absurd. That is, if knowledge had the power to im- 
part knowledge, the equity between subject and object 
would have been established at birth. Allowing that 
existence in the light of complete equity would be a 
paradise, it could readily be seen that learning would 
be impossible because there would be nothing to learn. 
To say that "something exists" would be equiva- 
lent to a "thinking thing" which Spenoza appeared to 
believe, in trying to prove that substance could think. 
The genus of pure thinking is the invisible Logos, or 
Word of God, or communication of thought between 
man and man would be impossible. To contend that 
the figurative is "vulgar" while the literal is culture, 
presents an obstacle between the Logos or natural in- 
telligence and the acquired (literal) that is more po- 
litical than honest or moral. That the learned in let- 
ters are more responsible for this duplicity than the 



HUMAN EQUITY I I 

illiterate, makes such personality accountable to God, 
even if the thought that individuality depends upon 
for its corporal existence, can be silenced by a policy 
and maintained by collective institutions which seek 
to preserve the old dogma that might was right. 

If human equity was a visible reality in the same 
sense that it is a spiritual fact, it would be a passive 
condition suggestive of the millennium. To evade this 
spiritual fact for material profit would not detract 
from the personal conception of human equity. 
Neither does silence convey an ignorance of the com- 
munion of spirit. A personal presence, however, to 
the contrary is an evidence of equity that the learning 
of all ages has ever failed to disprove. The Logos of 
thought establishes the genus of personality that noth- 
ing but the individual will can defy. A dogmatic pol- 
icy takes advantage of the protective sense of fear, 
but the reaction is more effective upon the dissem- 
bler, if observation is reliable. 

To allege abruptly that culture is responsible for 
the misery and evil in the world repels attention, 
since the first principle of communication is attrac- 
tion. Allowing that the genius of culture embraces 
all the wickedness of the world it does not follow that 
culture as such is wicked. Progress signifies culture 
and represents the line of demarcation between the 
animal and human, in the absence of which culture 
itself would be impossible. Crystalized materialism 
could represent culture incarnate, but all subject mat- 
ter is predicated by heat from which the activity of 
progress demands attention. It transcends the most 
orthodox conviction, so simple is activity engendered 
by the universal character of heat, that it establishes 



12 HUMAN EQUITY 

a human equity to which every phase of human con- 
duct is subordinate. 

That the literal method of communication is an im- 
provement over the figurative, which is due to the 
innate inspiration of progress, it does not effect the 
principle of communication since it always rests upon 
the direct inspiration of progress. There is a poten- 
tial policy in treating the literal as antithetical to the 
figurative since the two principles are strikingly syn- 
thetic. It points to a motive antagonistic to civiliza- 
tion no less than progress. The fact that progress 
persists in becoming an established fact, the potential 
effort of the learned in claiming specific inspiration 
instrumental of the end obtained, becomes involved 
in the means employed. 

If the truth depended upon a false foundation there 
were no need for such words as logic and reason. 
Specific inspiration and reason are more antithetical 
than figurative and literal methods of communica- 
tions. There is a purpose in this distinction that pre- 
sents an absurdity, since the directing influence of the 
literal is employed to subordinate the power of God 
by the secondary power of man. That man is in com- 
munion with God during the entire period of corporal 
existence requires no proof other than a personal pres- 
ence. It is a cardinal personality possessing a clear 
title to the "thinking thing" as literally termed to ex- 
press the soul. Not that it is a thing of substance, 
but the thinking that constitutes the important feature 
of person, to dispute which, the proof would devolve 
upon the disputant. 

The strenuous effort of the learned to maintain 
class supremacy parallel to the caste system of the 



HUMAN EQUITY I 3 

East, becomes more obvious as culture appears to give 
greater promise of an escape from moral obligation. 
The illiterate are a ready prey to the greed of the cul- 
tured and by maintaining the dogma of the ancient 
tyrants prior even to the Christian era, even the cul- 
tured appear sincere in the worship of literal vaga- 
ries which maintain a superficial appearance of reli- 
gion and moral rectitude. That this modern system 
of culture from a moral standpoint is a delusion, the 
relation between literal and figurative methods of por- 
traying thought is a remarkable witness. The rela- 
tion between the secular and political culture grows 
stronger as the disintegration between religion and 
politics reflects natural progress. 

If dominant interests are forced to abandon the po- 
litical control of religion and retreat to a position of 
secular culture with defective communication, (the 
present written language) it will be interesting to 
watch the result even if it is not seriously disastrous. 
It should always be borne in mind that culture and 
virtue are antithetical terms, for evil can be as readily 
cultivated as goodness, frequently more so. For this 
reason it is a misfortune to mistake culture for virtue 
suggesting a return to paganism of which the renais- 
sance period furnishes a recorded evidence. The in- 
ference is that culture guided by the policy of material 
greed was never remarkable for moral conduct. More 
suggestive even than the vagaries of culture is the 
gradual dawn of personal freedom so long burdened 
with political religion. 

In considering the differential between the letter 
and figure, both terms being embraced in the figure 
of speech, it is important to observe than an argu- 



14 HUMAN EQUITY 

ment, considered apart from discussion, is scarcely 
more than the defining of words. The science of lan- 
guage would be no science at all unless a fundamental 
standard of definition was strictly adhered to. The 
science of language (figuratively) is an esoteric cham- 
ber, from which perch one can look down without 
being seen from below. It presents a logical figure 
that does not detract from a speaker's argument be- 
cause the person cannot comprehend the terms em- 
ployed. If the motive is political the differential be- 
tween the figure and letter is essential. If the motive 
is spiritual or philanthropic there is no difference 
whatever between the figure and letter. 

The use of a figure to communicate ideas of thought 
is more license than political authority can consis- 
tently permit, because the letter permits of a more 
definite precision in restricting a limit. Hence for a 
political purpose a strict standard of communication 
must be maintained as a state measure, regardless of 
the Truth, or whether the established standard is right 
or wrong from a moral stand. The policy of all civil 
governments, since society demanded political protec- 
tion, has been to control religion, which is more read- 
ily comprehended by the figure of communication than 
the letter, for the reason it appeals more readily to 
common understanding than the letter or articulate 
speech. That is, the picture of a horse is more natu- 
rally conceived by the mind in duplicate image than 
the word horse. It appears to be overlooked, however, 
by politicians and scientific scholars who would shout 
in derision against the mere suggestion of human 
equity, that the word horse would never convey the 
conception of one prior to perceiving it per se, or fig- 



HUMAN EQUITY I 5 

uratively communicated by picture. It should be ap- 
parent, therefore, that the policy of deference shown 
to the letter is more to disguise the Truth for fear the 
common people will discover that human equity is 
more of a reality than political sagacity sustained 
without a resort to duplicity. The ignorance of let- 
ters gives color to political authority but the figure 
of precedent rises like a ghost in the dark, and asserts 
its pre-eminence to natural language. In comparison 
to the literal, the relation of the latter is a mere 
shadow. 

The multitude of objections that can be hurled at 
reality or the supreme truth is as futile as to attempt 
the destruction of space and time, because words de- 
rived from the science of letters are relative only to 
the figure which is always the fact. The most inge- 
nious effort has been resorted to in all time that any 
record preserves, to simply transcend Spiritual auth- 
ority by physical strength directed by political saga- 
city. It has been shown and possibly misunderstood 
that in the absence of difficulties progress would have 
no field of operation ; and human equity would be a 
matter of fact requiring no effort to demonstrate; but 
activity will not admit of a passive state, when it can 
be readily observed that every normal human being 
possesses the ambition of progress which is a feature 
of his body with the consciousness of life. If a person 
has not the courage to admit what he knows to be a 
fact, it presents a proposition foreign to a state of 
equality. The point is, if the wicked can bear their 
punishment, knowing they are wicked, the innocent 
can bear physical pain with a fortitude that would put 
the wicked, knowing his wickedness, to shame. 



1 6 HUMAN EQUITY 

The science of etymology is more political than 
logical if the word "logic" is permitted to bear a posi- 
tive definition. This important word is played with 
for political effect, but no scientific argument of any 
character can be maintained with a dual definition of 
terms employed. 

It gives the man of letters ("a literature") that 
practically excludes the figurative man or, technically 
speaking, the "layman" from any recognition other 
than a secondary position, but the point again is 
whether a policy can transcend the Truth. The mere 
assertion that the Truth is the ultimate end of an ar- 
gument cannot be conducted politically, for reasons 
stated that terms are defined to protect political auth- 
ority as supreme over religion, which is usually re- 
ferred to as "Church and State." It presents an inex- 
haustible controversy from a literary point of view, 
and to recognize the political definition of words, is 
to maintain a supremacy of the literal over the figu- 
rative, it presents a parallel situation as that between 
the political and religion, which could be extended to 
the natural relation with the artificial or materialism 
to the spiritual. 

To consider the search for the Truth it could be 
seen that the difficulty is more political than real, 
hence to view the situation without political bias, it 
could be observed that the figurative must be recog- 
nized as the fundamental principle of communication, 
by reason of the simplicity in which understanding 
can be exchanged. The figure appeals to natural in- 
telligence when the letter would be a blank, yet in 
logic the letter is also a figure which science would 
give it a material attribute with the avowed purpose 



HUMAN EQUITY I 7 

of discovering a Spiritual Truth. The erudite class 
of humanity form a learned peerage in such close al- 
liance to political sagacity that a personal attempt to 
reform politics would be to invite persecution which 
the records of the past bear ample evidence. 

It can be demonstrated by the figure pictorial, or 
the letter literal, that both forms are figures of speech 
pertaining to the Logos, or it would cease to be the 
ver}' source of logic. The fact that the term "Logos" 
represents a "distinct personality" is a definition re- 
mote from any political definition and the fact that 
personality is recognized it excludes any policy that 
could definitely elevate itself to a position of authority 
to distinguish one personality from another, — that 
is, in the absence of politics or statecraft. The State 
has always to maintain a standard of weights and 
measurements, for science has never been able to 
demonstrate the weight of a pound or length of a 
foot ; this pertains to matter or a passive substance. 
Now to pass into the realm of the active and affirm 
that the State should maintain a standard of methods 
in the commerce of thoughts it would be a state of 
harmony that would transcend the most ideal. In 
act, ideal progress proves, and discovery would not 
exist, if the State could legislate and maintain a stand- 
ard of thought or to a nicety restrict every subject to 
a limitation of what to think, or not to think. Noth- 
ing could be more absurd in science or theory to ex- 
exploit such a self-evident impossibility. It would 
practically be an attempt to restrain the power of 
God. Thus if the Logos means any thing it is no less 
than God. As a base of more extended observations 



1 8 HUMAN EQUITY 

the Logos pertains to "distinct personality." (The 
Century Dictionary.) It should be observed that per- 
sonality is qualified by distinction. This distinction 
could not be maintained as authority without the 
power of the State which would be establishing a 
standard of thinking. 

The fact that the Logos pertains to more than the 
State has any possible jurisdiction over, it throws a 
little ray of light upon a dual authority divided be- 
tween the Spiritual and political. It would be absurd 
for the object to attempt to prove what the subject 
knows, even if the object reflected the knowledge 
known, which the science of psychology exploits to 
an exhaustive length. The point in brief is, if the 
qualifying word "distinction" with any other seeking 
to qualify a word representing the Truth — Logos — 
God — Knowledge, the State is responsible for the at- 
tempt to qualify whatever word is used to designate 
the Truth. In the absence of any policy the word 
"Logos" would signify "person" without the "dis- 
tinction," a distinct effort to intrude upon the realm of 
Spirit. It remains for the objector to prove that the 
Logos does not apply to human unity rather than a 
distinct personality which science and philosophy 
have never been able to more than affirm. 

It leads to the observation that the word logic de- 
rived from "Logos," pertains to a personal conception 
of the Truth from which even science is excluded, and 
the political effort to establish a communication be- 
tween the spiritual and literal has never been bridged. 
Also such terms as "live matter," "scientific logic" 
and "unknown truth," are vague and meaningless 
terms, showing that logic begins where science leaves 



HUMAN EQUITY 1 9 

off. Logic therefore is not a science but the force by 
which means a scientific method of commerce between 
man and man is possible, derived from the Power of 
God — the power of Man — the universal Equity of 
Humanity. 



20 HUMAN EQUITY 



S, 



CHAPTER III. 

THE UNIT OF PERSONALTY. 



xience says, one and one are two. Truth says that 
one and one continue to be one, from the beginning of 
time to the end of time. It is correct mathematically 
to say one and one are two according to the science of 
numbers and learning, but logically it is not true, and 
therefore it has no philosophical force in analyzing 
Spirit, the principle of mathematics is limited to pas- 
sive matter extended in parts either figuratively or 
literally according to numbers. The science of Leib- 
nitz proved nothing in his search for a devisable spirit 
His monad was confined to the science of mathematics 
and demonstrated the ultimate extention of an atom. 
He gave evidence, however, of knowing more about 
the unit of personality than the civil government of 
the period would permit him to demonstrate. 

An argument between mathematics and logic, in- 
volves the personal unit against unity or a group of 
units, the one against the many. It is a very common 
remark that the chain is no stronger than its weakest 
link. It is a scientific clincher and represents a nega- 
tive personality, but it is the chain involved, showing 
that the chain depends upon the link without effect- 
ing the unit of which the chain is composed. As a 
mathematical proposition it is an extension of num- 
bers, and the fact that a single link destroys the effect- 



HUMAN EQUITY 21 

iveness shows the unit to be the one feature of the 
chain that makes the chain itself a unit. If it were one 
chain opposed to another, like two nations, two doc- 
trines, or two political organizations, the argument 
resolves into a material one. Thus the calculus of 
mathematics is an extension of parts scientifically 
exact as pertaining to numbers or measurements but 
the unit of concrete matter is the same whether a 
monad or a congulation of parts into a whole. 

A person is a unit of entire humanity by the same 
trend of reasoning, and while it presents nothing new 
to the fraternity of learning, it is of special import- 
ance to the simplicity of common understanding. 
Also if a person becomes a sterile proposition, by cul- 
tivating a negative objection to an abstruse simili- 
tude, a more simple comparison might be a step to 
the abstruse of which the learned, in proportion to 
their degree of learning, appear very reticent for fear 
simplicity will make commonness too common. It is 
therefore of the first importance to the uncommon to 
defend the mathematical and scientific method of 
obtaining learning (not knowledge, for such a term 
would embrace the natural). 

The natural would suggest that one and one con- 
tinue to be one regardless of the mathematical exten- 
sion of points and "monads." A simile of simplicity 
or the natural opposed to the scientific could be stud- 
ied from a drop of water taken from the ocean, con- 
tinuing to be the ocean regardless of the apparent 
loss, only apparent, however, for the drop itself could 
be divided and multiplied mathematically to the end 
of time without in the least disturbing the unit of a 
drop of water, which would return to the unit ocean 



2 2 HUMAN EQUITY 

long before the number of monads, or atoms, it con- 
tained, could be determined. It would be logical to 
observe that a single bean in a barrel of beans was only 
a part of the concrete unit that the barrel contained. 
That is, the congulation of numbers constitute the 
mass, which is always a unit of substance, in contra- 
distinction to Spirit ; and logical for the reason that 
science depends upon mathematics in seeking the 
Truth by its limitation to materialism, while logic to 
be such is the Truth itself, the Motor of motion re- 
quiring no proof any more than light would, in being 
denied by darkness, until it proved by its own light 
that it was light. The conclusion is, that Truth and 
logic cannot be analyzed by even mathematical ex- 
actness. 

Every form of motion has been eagerly grasped by 
science since Aristotle exposed sophistry by substi- 
tuting philosophy and science on lines inaugurated by 
Socrates, only to have his own conclusion success- 
fully refuted by later development. The trend of 
Socrates, as represented by Plato was, "Is it true?" 
rather than, "Who said it was true?" 

The Truth today is the same as at any previous day, 
since science, structural formation, theories and doc- 
trines, were all embraced in the political, confined to 
material limitation, and therefore temporal ; the re- 
sult of force, the very essence of God, misdirected by 
the conduct of man in defiance of the revealed Truth. 
The Truth finds the man and the pretence of searching 
for it proves that the efifort to hide the fact would be 
the best evidence in the world that he was already in 
possession; and instead of searching for it he would 
be seeking scientific or political assistance to get rid 
of it. 



HUMAN EQUITY 23 

Whatever is temporal suggests a change of base, 
therefore to study motion some visible substance 
must be observed. The scientific examining of mo- 
tion has been extended to an exhaustive limit, but in 
a logical sense it is the substance or body in motion 
rather than motion. It is therefore the source of mo- 
tion that is being sought, by studying the body while 
in motion. This error of mathematics in measuring 
a body in motion would be obliged to calculate the 
distance from one point to another which would be 
a mathematical impossibility and therefore absurd. 
Logic admits of no standard less than the Truth it- 
self, therefore when a body in motion is measured as 
to time and space with a view of proving the power 
that moves the body, it would be necessary to demon- 
strate mathematically what the distance was between 
the Truth and a falsehood, or to be more exact, what 
would the distance be between the Truth and a false- 
hood when the falsehood was extended to its mathe- 
matical limit? It would be analogous to the distance 
between science and logic. 

Aristotle coined the word "metaphysics" to estab- 
lish a unity of matter and Spirit. His genius, how- 
ever, was confined to mathematics, and when Addison 
declared that Aristotle was the greatest logician in 
the world, it would have been better stated to have 
called him an artful dodger, for he showed a political 
method of evading the Truth in patronizing Alexan- 
der, his pupil. 

It is not strange that the fame of Aristotle tickled 
his vanity, for the sycophancy of the period could 
scarcely be resisted when greatness depended upon the 
number of followers a person could attract. No bet- 



24 HUMAN EQUITY 

ter proof exists today of his fallacies than the skepti- 
cism that followed in his wake. No science or theory 
could be maintained without a strict attention to a 
standard definition of words. A definition of signs 
by which human thoughts are portrayed for 
the purpose of communication between persons ; and 
just as important as a standard of weights and mea- 
sure to preserve the length of a foot or how much sub- 
stance constituted a pound. That Aristotle tried to 
establish a standard definition of words in accord 
with the science of numbers, with state authority to 
enforce it, made his conclusions temporal in propor- 
tion to the state's ability to maintain its authority. 
Thus whatever depends upon human authority as de- 
vised by man's work, or instrumentality in touch with 
substance. Aristotle's entire system of philosophy 
depended upon the apotheosis of some human mortal. 
It presupposed that might was right. He was a math- 
ematician, but to call him a logician for the purpose 
of maintaining a supernatural system at the present 
time, would entail the necessity of a dual definition 
of the word logic, which could not be both true and 
false. 

Skepticism applied to state or political religion has 
always possessed a degree of progress since officials 
of one nation could agree to a method by which the 
equity of the common people could be disguised ; some 
other nation would advance by reason of doubt in 
whatever related to the differential between the 
passive and active, or the object moved, and the Power 
that moved it. An honest doubt would not be skepti- 
cism in a natural sense ; and therein lies the differen- 
tial between matter and Spirit, practically the same as 



HUMAN EQUITY 25 

the passive and active. A state or political authority 
for an absolute standard of the definition of words 
(objective language) would as effectually destroy 
progress as to break a child's legs at birth to prevent 
it from walking. Political or collective authority has 
always objected to private judgment since communi- 
cation was first established, however remote the fact 
might be. The reason should be obvious, simply be- 
cause the unit of personality would mean a personal 
communion of Spirit which, it has been the effort to 
show, is distinct from the communion of matter, a 
logical impossibility and only tentatively maintained 
by political authority, what history has always proved 
to have been temporal ; from which it is also proof 
that the position is not logical. (A word derived from 
Logos, identically God, signifying Truth and Person.) 
If the political definition supplies the word "distinc- 
tion" to the word "person" it does not detract from 
the relation of person to the Logos which is the im- 
portant feature to observe. Again whatever is tem- 
poral is matter in motion but not necessarily live mat- 
ter moved by connate Spirit which, if not immutable 
Truth it is not objective substance, which can be 
demonstrated by sense perception (the very limit of 
science and mathematics). That is, substance is that 
which can be perceived by the senses, but the Power 
to conceive, what contact reveals to the senses is con- 
fined to person, which concerns material things, either 
moving or at rest. Aristotle could not have been ig- 
norant of this simple principle, for if he had been he 
could not have been so successful in dodging without 
having a knowledge of some substance to dodge ; be- 
sides he could not have been ignorant of what con- 



26 HUMAN EQUITY 

stituted the essential character of his progenitor, 
Socrates. 

It is neither Socrates, Plato, or Aristotle that con- 
cerns the present other than their renowned person- 
alities, which were subject to the same Logos that 
every personality is dependent upon, may it be a 
monad or a body in possession of a Motor or the 
Power to generate energy sufficient to move things 
or dodge whatever substance appeared too formidable 
to overcome. If the standard authority derived from 
the science of etymology (policy in disguise) would 
supplement a definition to the word politics by adding 
— the science of dodging — the simple-minded would 
readily understand that they should dodge whatever 
substance that did not appeal to experience, or the 
inner conception of understanding. 

Shakespeare wrote, "If reasons were as plenty as 
blackberries, it would still be impossible to compel a 
person to conceive the sense of understanding." 

The Power to perceive is the real Logos of person ; 
it should be recognized as the Truth per se. External 
contact does not impart the Power to perceive, hence 
the Power must exist prior to the contact with an ex- 
ternal object, or conception would be impossible. It 
is an imposition upon personality, to even attempt to 
teach that the subject depends upon the object. It is 
simply a political effort to dodge the very essence of 
consciousness. 

The word "policv" signifies a scheme — something to 
be done — a design. Polity is derived from this word 
"policy." It does not involve the Power, without 
which no action or movement could occur; besides, 
policy would be absurd if it could not direct a move- 



HUMAN EQUITY 2 J 

ment in different directions while only one could be 
true. It can readily be seen, therefore, that politics, 
which is derived from policy, signifies a dual move- 
ment contrary to a straight line that an inanimate ob- 
ject would take. Human conduct is therefore ac- 
countable rather than the Power to move things. If 
the power or energy was at fault man would never 
have had occasion to symbolize an action of conduct 
to hide an internal design. It simply shows if a man 
had no conception of the ability to direct his conduct 
from a straight course the word policy would never 
have signified anything. 

Person — Logos — God — apply to one humanity in 
common, and what constitutes a perfect equity is the 
Power of God rather than the effect of this Power that 
individual man was permitted to direct, which the di- 
versity of conduct is ample proof. That a wrong act 
which is able to direct the movement of the body can 
only be known primarily from the act itself, the rela- 
tion between man and man could not be both altruis- 
tic and political. It is this feature of human conduct 
that needs ventilating, more than the conduct of the 
common people who are scarcely recognized as hav- 
ing any human qualities except what is imparted by 
external policy. There is no question but what virtue 
renews itself from the crude or base, but that is no 
reason why a pretence of altruistic conduct should be 
paraded in the disguise of policy. 

Because the common people take but little interest 
in the "higher criticism" of modern learning, it does 
not follow that they do not think in silence ; a force 
that will demand settlement if history is worth con- 
sidering. If individual man is not in direct commu- 



2 8 HUMAN EQUITY 

nion with God from the instant he conceives light, 
there is no difference between the animal and the 
human. The mere assertion that humanity is classi- 
fied by degrees of intelligence, is inconsistent with 
the necessity of maintaining a policy. 

Objective altruism advocated by a subjective pol- 
icy is a perfect example of egotism. The example will 
attract more attention than the precepts. It is this 
ability to dissemble that casts a discredit upon human 
intelligence as a concrete principle. The person who 
can affect morality and benevolence, can also decoy 
the credulous by a superficial display of acquirements 
of either money or bookish terms. In this way ego- 
tistic man can put on an altruistic dress; and even his 
peers in learning can scarcely penetrate the disguise. 
The altruistic system of modern learning (sometimes 
alluded to as the higher criticism) is materialism, 
mere paganism in a modern dress; were it otherwise 
the skeptical criticism of the Bible would be absent. 

Even the philosophy and srience of the Bible is 
more than modernism can successfully destroy, : 
nothing of its logical and spiritual character. The 
mere affirming that the science of mathematics is logi- 
cal does not prove that logic is a science, or that one 
and one are two. Two parallel lines could be treated 
as analogous, but it would nor prove that two analo- 
gous assertions were parallel. The Truth does not 
rest upon the authority of who said it was true. What 
an individual person or the unit of personality wants 
to know is. whether one Truth and one Truth makes 
more than one, or whether the word Truth does not 
always represent a singular number and never a 
plural. The Truth is also positive since the negative 



HUMAN EQUITY 29 

must bear the burden of proof. It is like an effect 
seeking to overtake the cause. 

It is analogous to a mathematical demonstration to 
prove that the passive controls the active, or that 
darkness can affirm its presence in the light. The 
plural "we" is only a mathematical part of the logical 
One. A word in the first person signifies One; to be 
mathematical, numerical parts of the One are involved. 
The relation therefore of the One to the many is re- 
markably simple. The higher critics who declare 
themselves to be the salvation of Christianity should 
compute the length of time it will take for Science to 
overtake logic providing half the distance between 
them is daily accomplished. In another form, how 
long will it take for a part of humanity, numerically 
more or less, to overcome Person, the One whole? 



3<D HUMAN EQUITY 



CHAPTER IV. 

SIMPLE UNDERSTANDING. 

THE first principle of psychology is attention. 
Nothing is more dense, however simple, than 
that which passes in the presence of inattention. No 
collective body of metaphysicians have ever got be- 
yond the individual conception of the science of mind. 
The most successful presentation of any science is to 
envelop it in such abstruse language that the under- 
standing of it may be monopolized by a few ; and fre- 
quently a single individual can become so mysterious 
that a multitude will hang upon his utterances in pro- 
portion to their inability to understand the meaning 
of what he says. 

The science of psychology is the most mysterious 
science there is, from which all the various branches 
are derived. The complete history of science could 
be condensed into a pamphlet, but it would lack the 
feature of mystery that so excites the ideal emotions 
that the more difficult it is to understand the more it 
would attract attention. Just the moment that a per- 
son accepts the thoughts of others as being superior 
to his own, the progressive feature that makes human 
thought superior to animal instinct ceases to act be- 
yond that moment. It establishes an abnormal con- 
dition of the mental faculties, when mystery will so 
thoroughly engage the attention that simple under- 



HUMAN EQUITY 3 I 

standing would become a blank. There are a multi- 
tude of reasons why the simplicity of understanding 
is vigorously resisted, the principal one of which is, 
it is not politically profitable. 

The very nature of thought or imagery of under- 
standing will not permit of a comprehension of the 
differential between subjective and objective thinking. 
Except for the communion of Spirit over which policy 
has no jurisdiction, progress would be a blank. The 
defeat in the English language has practically sealed 
the relation between the objective and subjective from 
a literal standpoint ; and without a divergence from 
political authority even simple methods could appear 
more abstruse than mystery itself. To attempt a sim- 
ple explanation would appear to invite a fierce criti- 
cism from the modern skeptics who style themselves 
the "higher criticism." Progress is a license which 
permits of the object digging its own grave, in the 
vain effort of conserving an authority over the sub- 
ject which is constantly being renewed in utter con- 
tempt for the effort to revive a culture based upon 
paganism. 

What Christ recognized and exemplified does not 
require a complexed literary culture to comprehend. 
The very effort in introducing a political method of 
interpreting the Scriptures entails a conviction that a 
scheme of some character is involved. The only pro- 
tection the common people have is their close affilia- 
tion with Nature, equivalent to a personal presence 
with God. It is only from a dogmatic controversy 
that mystery can be so presented to the common peo- 
ple as to excite their fear or appetite. It is from the 
pretence of assistance, but as they are surrounded with 



32 HUMAN EQUITY 

an atmosphere of mystery from the moment the light 
of day is perceived ; it is the greater mystery that the 
human race is not utterly destroyed from the greed of 
predecessors to foster a policy of duplicity upon pos- 
terity that nothing but natural simplicity is able to 
counteract. 

The act of communication is a natural inheritance 
as well as the ambition to progress. The accomplish- 
ment of material prosperity is pointed to as the result 
of knowledge, but to allege that knowledge is learning 
signifies that either the one term or the other is false, 
for only one can be true. A person skilled in magic 
was obliged to learn the art. Such a one must have 
had the Power of Conception or he could never have 
learned the art of deception from the perception of 
objects. Would it not be more reverential to desig- 
nate the Power to learn — Knowledge — rather than as- 
sociate it with the learning of magic which the person 
so learned could not have performed mysteriously 
without knowing that learning was an objective effect, 
rather than a subjective conception? 

The child asks for "bread" and is given a "stone." 
Henee the Spiritual, however simple to understand, 
is, by the art of literal mystery made to feel that lit- 
eral learning is superior to Spiritual conception. The 
material feature embraced in learning and mystery 
acts as a stone to the child by which means the child 
grows to manhood mentally abnormal. Even a sus- 
picion that the learned, to be such, must be aware of 
the literal effort to supersede the Spirit tentatively. 
For instance : ignorance is proclaimed to be an ab- 
sence of literal learning without any reference to 
Knowledge which, by literal phraseology is treated 



HUMAN EQUITY 33 

synthetically with learning. This applying a word to 
the literal and Spiritual both cannot be an oversight, 
for the greatest ability of the learned is employed to 
give this synthesis a logical appearance of being true. 
Because the literate can hide this policy from the il- 
literate it does not perfect a union of the Spiritual and 
literal. The fact that it is not true makes it an im- 
moral act regardless of the inability of the illiterate to 
comprehend it. As a measure of expediency it in- 
volves policy, yet the point is that the conscientious 
conviction of this false relation between knowledge 
and learning could not be negatively asserted unless 
it was positively known. No other excuse is possible 
except policy, or an admission of ignorance. Scientifi- 
cally it is the relation between conception and percep- 
tion, yet when two persons come in contact by literal 
argument or otherwise, what is conception to one is 
perception to the other. It constitutes a reciprocity of 
understanding that establishes correspondence. For 
what other purpose except a policy or a scheme is 
literal learning acquired? The science of dodging is 
a protective art, but it is extremely dangerous to 
dodge a peer in the art. If the protection that literal 
ability affords is a divine privilege, no occasion could 
possibly exist in maintaining two or more standards 
of literal authority, the one esoteric and the other exo- 
teric. To reduce the same idea to a simple under- 
standing, the exoteric is natural and divine, while the 
esoteric is a political abstract, a reflection of the ob- 
ject like the shadow that effects the real ; but in real- 
ity it is false and immoral for the reason it is not true. 
Culture is not involved in this treatment of the lit- 
eral excepting an attempt as before stated to defend a 



34 HUMAN EQUITY 

policy as an expediency, or compromise between civil 
authority and the Spiritual, the continuity of effort of 
the material to transcend the Spiritual. Beauty is di- 
vine and also natural, simply because nothing can be 
beautiful unless it is divine. In a strict sense culture 
adds nothing to the beautiful, for it would be an ano- 
maly so inconsistent with an equity of understanding 
as to be absurd. Only those trained to an abnormal 
conception of what constitutes real beauty could pos- 
sibly mistake mystery for reality. Beauty is either an 
intrinsic reality or a deceptive delusion. That culture 
cannot improve the divine perfection of beauty appeals 
to simple understanding. To present this view of 
culture the reality of culture itself becomes beautiful. 
The policy, however, in clothing culture in literal mys- 
tery is to protect the mystery against the simple un- 
derstanding of natural man, who is more beautiful 
than mystery, however gorgeous mystery may be, 
clothed in literal acquirements. Compared to simple 
understanding, it is analogous to the differential be- 
tween the Spiritual and the material, or the natural 
and the literal. To obtain a service which is the 
fundamental principle of policy, an abnormal mental 
condition is essential to a material culture, providing 
that was the end in view. If to the contrary a simple 
understanding was the purpose of culture, it would be 
absurd to maintain a complex system of portraying 
thought, the very conception of simple understanding. 
After an abnormal condition of the brain, which 
is frequently termed "mind," is thoroughly effected, 
simple understanding is confined to whatever circle 
the objective leader permits. That is, in proportion 
to the confidence of a follower the leader will be fol- 



HUMAN EQUITY 35 

lowed. This is a material attraction which is main- 
tained by mathematical and scientific demonstration. 
It is only true, however, that it is a demonstration 
very attractive to persons of abnormal convictions. 
The proof that such mental faculties are in an abnor- 
mal condition is* by reason of the person following; 
having been trained to believe that everybody is 
obliged to follow something. The leader and follower 
are both interested in defending this materialist situa- 
tion, but if it were true it would prove that passive 
matter controlled the Power that moved it, or that 
the Spiritual existed for the sole purpose of one cor- 
poral body following another. Because it is a literal 
fact the abnormal mind appears to get no further than 
the fact that it is literal. What to think is clear 
enough, for the policy of a leader supplies an abun- 
dance of objective thinking; but how to think is an 
equitable conception revealed to the inner person 
which the very leader depends upon for his policy in 
obstructing the constructive ability of a follower, un- 
til the follower's brain becomes transformed into an 
abnormal condition of strict obedience. 

The normal advent of birth is irrespective of literal 
authority. The babe is not a phenomenon or a subject 
of literal dominion; it supercedes the most fanatical 
literalist. It destroys every literal sentiment of the 
subject's dependence upon the object for its knowl- 
edge. The babe is in possession of Spiritual knowl- 
edge before it breathes or it never would breathe. It 
is not for literalists to dispute the commanding pres- 
ence of the babe. Its very ignorance of literal dupli- 
city puts to shame the fiat of man or any body of men 
proclaiming themselves the "higher criticism." Again 



36 HUMAN EQUITY 

it illustrates the fallacy of materialism to literally dem- 
onstrate that substance can command the Power that 
moves it. The so-called helplessness of the babe is 
mere literal duplicity, the policy of which is to de- 
prive the babe of its Spiritual inheritance. To liter- 
ally consign a new birth to the subjugation of its sur- 
roundings presents a situation so simple that even 
the babe in its weakness has sufficient strength to pro- 
test against any literal command of which its very 
ignorance of literal communication is not only a proof 
of its Spiritual communion, but also a rebuke to any- 
one seeking to spiritualize literal authority by literal 
decree. The defenceless presence of a babe appeals 
to the most abnormal condition that literal acquire- 
ments can transform a human being into. 

The simple understanding of the Spiritual is evi- 
denced by the presence of an innocent babe, entirely 
unconscious of the external influence of the complex 
literal method of communication that policy, greed, 
and duplicity direct to disprove the pre-eminence of 
Spiritual knowledge. No symbol conveyed by letter 
can present a more self-evident Truth, yet man would 
contend with a grandiloquence of words to frame 
some excuse for exercising a command, by virtue of a 
decree of society, that the first flicker of internal life 
must be dedicated to the environments of external 
authority. "Before Abraham I am" is a literal inter- 
pretation of Spiritual authority. A strict literalist, 
however, would deny that Christ spoke in literal lan- 
guage relating to a Spiritual authority. Skeptical 
ability to prove an ascendancy of the literal over the 
Spiritual can only be disputed by the continual pres- 
ence of the babe. It is not these written words which 



HUMAN EQUITY 37 

are presented as a picture of the defenceless child, 
that are intended as a formula to emulate or 
as a guide to the proper path for the child to follow, 
since it would destroy the very principle that the pic- 
ture is intended to convey. The perfect Spiritual 
Truth of the child would not permit of a directing in- 
fluence. It is the observation of the fact that the 
child presents its credentials as one of authority and 
not by permission. It is therefore a simple under- 
standing between the parent and child, over which 
scene literal authority is but a blank sheet of paper, 
on which the Spiritual activity may be recorded. To 
continue to make the picture more simple, it could be 
observed that any dispute of this Truth would be con- 
fined to the literal record, possibly by a literalist of 
mathematical exactness, yet the Spiritual presence of 
the child would assert its supremacy regardless of any 
literal dispute it may have occasioned. The figure ap- 
peals to simple understanding, which could be better 
studied by private meditation, than too strict an ap- 
plication to "higher critics." It would be well for any 
individual with aspirations of becoming a "higher 
critic" to first determine the distance between a literal 
proposition and a logical one, or the scientific oppo- 
site to the logical, since it would be the same as the 
difference between the power that moves things and 
the things that are moved. 

The child is so strictly a Power acting by direct 
authority, that the faculty of imitation is as much an 
embroyo of future development as the child previous 
to its individual personality. For this reason conduct 
presents itself in the line of progress. Progress and 
imagination are universal features of the entire human 



38 HUMAN EQUITY 

race, that the higher critic could scarcely fail to ob- 
serve; and when he makes such a painful exhibition 
of himself, it presents an evidence that individual con- 
duct is not only misleading, but also presents a situ- 
ation that those who are misled become the more 
anxious to hide their folly by insisting they are dis- 
tinctly qualified to lead others to the same pit of dis- 
truction. That is, a literalist claiming to follow the 
conviction of his mathematical exactness, apparently 
is justified by his own fiat, that he, as a follower of 
others in his own image becomes sufficiently apotheo- 
sized to insist upon leading them. 

The "higher criticism" out-dogmas the most radical 
dogmatics in the defence of literalism, both factors 
equally opposed to the Spiritual revelation as 
evidenced by the presence of the babe. Hence the 
skepticism of the higher criticism is bigotry in dis- 
guise, (political disguise) more destructive than the 
system they would supplant. The difference between 
one literal system and another joined together by the 
same policy does not compare with the Spiritual pres- 
ence of the babe. Therefore if it is not true the star 
of Bethlehem was followed in vain. 

CHAPTER V. 

AGNOSTICISM 

IF the folly of agnosticism was the means of per- 
suading a single individual to dodge the evil itself, 
the sentiment could be condoned as presenting a 
pitfall so clear and vivid that even the blind could not 
be persuaded to fall into it, for a conviction of what to 
shun is the first lesson in progress. When mystery is 
paraded with a knowledge of its effect it becomes pol- 



HUMAN EQUITY 39 

icy to the performer. It has always been a factor in 
political religion, but Spiritual religion is not dis- 
turbed by it. That is, mystery degenerates while 
progress regenerates. 

A conception of progress is not possible beyond the 
contact with some external object. This common- 
place idea refers to an agnostic who declares he don't 
know; would it imply that he didn't know he had 
come in contact with an external object while he was 
rubbing the point of contact? The perpetual negative 
of a positive event would be, that he knew he came in 
contact with something, but in asserting, that he 
didn't know, he meant he didn't know the object he 
came in contact with. Therefore the science of dodg- 
ing is always an embarassment when the definition 
of a symbol is involved. In this case it involves the 
word Knowledge and the agnostic is not going to be 
conquered by illiteracy while he is supplied with an 
endless chain of words to prove that knowledge is 
imparted by perception; and not to know the object 
perceived is to remain in ignorance of any significance 
derived from the contact which would be too common- 
place for an agnostic to consider after he was com- 
mitted to a negative belief. 

As a philosophy or science, agnosticism, theology, 
and policy are wrapped in an objective mystery to 
conserve a material negative against a Spiritual posi- 
tive. The agnostic can tell to the literal exactness of 
a letter just what ought to be, but what is, he can 
dodge with the skill of a Greek sophist. His peers 
in learning who are selfishly interested in conserving 
the negative against the positive may be in bitter 
controversy, but they are all agreed against admitting 
the positive of things, or what is, in contradction of 



40 HUMAN EQUITY 

their egotistic pretension of what ought to be. Any 
dissenter to this tacit agreement is cast out as a traitor 
to the cause of agnosticism, or what could be justly 
termed negativism. 

When a child becomes trained to a belief, it is of 
small consequence what the belief is, so long as the 
objective policy of the subject's dependence upon an 
object can be maintained. The esoteric chamber of 
learning cannot be entered until this dogmatic false- 
hood is so thoroughly embraced that no escape would 
be possible with so-called honor. The skeptic, the 
materialist, and the more modern cult term, "higher 
criticism" is embraced in this esoteric delusion derived 
from the prerogatives of the pagans, as anti-Chris- 
tian as light is the opposite of darkness. 

The ideal "what ought to be" is too vague for com- 
mon understanding. There is a political purpose in 
the effort of maintaining the ascendancy of the "ought 
to be" over the "what is." The "what is," however, 
is no less positive by reason of the negative "what 
ought to be," but the well-known magic of mystery 
in attracting the populous, was thoroughly utilized 
by the ancients to obtain a slavish service with an 
apparent contentment that gave color to the authority 
of whosoever was learned in magic. This mystery 
so successfully maintained by a combination of reli- 
gion and politics, continues to take on forms more 
congenial to the progressive persistency of the hu- 
man race. 

It requires the same Power to affirm, as it does to 
reject a belief, therefore whatever state of belief an 
individual might maintain it presents an ultimate end 
that would not admit of a negative consideration, even 



HUMAN EQUITY 41 

if the Power required was the same. It is practically 
a respect for sincere belief to recognize the virtue and 
consolation of belief yet the fact that it is an ultimate 
conclusion, or it would not be a belief at all, consti- 
tutes the necessary point of departure which makes 
progress a possibility. The mere changing of one be- 
lief for another would not be any more than sugges- 
tive of what constitutes real progress. As long as a 
belief of any character embraces a strict holding to 
the policy of objective authority, the latent conception 
of progress will remain as sterile as the individual 
embryo previous to birth. 

It demonstrates that the ultimatum of a belief will 
not permit of an agnostic progression which would 
perforce be directed in the support of whatever belief 
was present. No one could logically be blamed for 
being born, and an individual would be equally irre- 
sponsible for a sincere belief. The situation would be 
reversed when a person would employ the Power 
which is and from actual experience, known to be a 
common inheritance, cultivate a mystery and make it 
so attractive as to lead an innocent child into a state 
of degenerate belief, until regeneracy or destruction 
becomes the alternative. 

Political heresy is as distinct from Spiritual heresy 
as a belief is from a true conception. It is derived 
from the policy of the learned pagans, that an ob- 
jective god must be maintained as a necessity to gov- 
ern the natural instinct of common humanity. It was 
readily construed into a condition of depravity and 
very much enhanced by the ability of the learned in 
mystery to keep a new attraction before the people. 
That it was the policy to degenerate the many that 



42 HUMAN EQUITY 

the authority of the few could the more easily be main- 
tained, is a matter of history, but the introduction of 
this policy into the era of Christianity gave rise to 
dogmaticism apologetics, and learned skepticism, a 
natural result of the policy of agnosticism. Such a 
fierce argument was certainly more negative than af- 
firmative, for a simple acknowledgment that God was 
universal Power and Knowledge, was more proof 
that conduct as an effect of the Power involving the 
will was more responsible for its misconduct than 
the Power that made the denial possible by a mere 
tacit negation of an external Omnipotence. 

To declare that God was both subjective and ob- 
jective to sustain a negative argument would be ab- 
surd. It would be more reasonable to observe that 
man's conduct actually exhibited as a negative and 
positive both, would either be destructive of the Om- 
nipotence of God or the declaration that He directed 
the conduct of man objectively. To admit the human 
equity of the entire human race is the point at issue; 
and that the corporal individual calling himself man 
in the image of God can so manipulate his mental 
organism as to deny a knowledge of his own exist- 
ence for the purpose, revealed by his conduct, in pro- 
tecting an objective authority, is certainly not logical 
even if it is possible for a subject to direct hs own 
conduct. To examine this situation carefully it could 
be observed that modern learning is based upon pagan 
philosophy, merely adopting Christian precepts for 
popular support. It is strikingly obvious in the skep- 
ticism carefully disguised in the term agnosticism, a 
denial of a knowledge of existence by the mere quib- 
bling over abstracts, and an eloquent exhibition of 
phraseology and much learning. 



HUMAN EQUITY 43 

That the innate ambition to progress is a universal 
fact, should be recognized when it would be a simple 
matter to account for learning as such, from which 
a mysterious conduct would be a mere incident. To 
the credulous or weak minded, who are also endowed 
with progressive inspiration, the attraction of mystery 
would be a proof of the common ambition to progress, 
while it would also disprove the prevailing sentiment 
that the child is a dependent upon the objective in- 
fluence of previous learning. The child is given no 
credit for its direct communion with Spirit, and even 
the conduct of man is so mysterious that the credu- 
lous can be convinced that knowledge is learning, 
omitting as a purpose of policy that the Power to 
learn was the very essence of learning, of which fact 
the subject could be as ignorant as a stone ; yet if the 
Power — Logos — God, also not irreverent to recognize 
the same Power, as Knowledge, did not exist in the 
subject previous to conception, no conduct, or learn- 
ing, mere abstracts of knowledge, could impart the 
Power. It would be idle to attempt to account for 
the conduct of man, when the learned are contending 
with each other to preserve the prerogatives of the 
pagans in denying to the child its priority of Power, 
that no argument of any character effects in the least. 

The power of a locomotive is equally as effective in 
going backward as forward. Conduct, therefore, is 
as dependent upon the Spiritual to maintain a nega- 
tive declaration as to defend the opposite — the posi- 
tive. It is this feature that sustains the agnostic in 
a possible belief that he was going forward, while the 
difference between moving forward or backward 
would be embraced in the effect. That is, the power 
to move would not be concerned in the direction of 



44 HUMAN EQUITY 

the movement, the direction would involve a strictly 
subjective principal as much so as the communion of 
Spirit of which the babe is absolute master ; and while 
it can be trained to believe that mystery is more at- 
tractive than reality, it cannot be deprived of its title 
to private judgment or a direct communion of Spirit 
of which it must necessarily be a part or it could not 
be persuaded to believe it was moving forward, while 
its confidence was being betrayed for the purpose of 
leading it backward. 

The agnostic to be such must maintain what is not 
rather than what is. To thus exhibit the Power of 
knowing which is the most perfect presentation of 
Truth that a human being is capable of perceiving, 
reflecting a conception of consciousness, cannot be 
accounted for except as a purpose of policy to promote 
an egotistic pretention to an esoteric distinction. If 
human progress represents no more lofty purpose 
than to promote a material advantage by the external 
pretention of not knowing what the internal proclaims 
to be false, or the ability to declare what is not, would 
be impossible. It would be equally absurd for a man 
to declare he was dead while he had life enough to 
make the assertion. To declare a disbelief in Truth, a 
Spiritual fact necessary to life itself, is the exteranl 
evidence of agnosticism. No circumstance of literal 
authority or political obligation can justify a person 
in proclaiming that God is more than life simply be- 
cause a trancient belief in objective authority is 
chosen to supersede the subjective. Truth that to be 
such could not be less than perfection. Hence an 
ideal god, the most fanciful conception of the brain, 
could not be the superlative of the Truth. An honest 



HUMAN EQUITY 45 

conviction derived from literal authority appeals to 
the principle of private judgment or subjective medi- 
tation. The fact that the records of man's conduct 
do not appeal to the necessity of confidence, gives 
to the communion of Spirit a greater significance ; 
particularly when selfish policy persists in maintain- 
ing the supersedure of literal words over the Spiritual ; 
it is a vain potential effort that every birth rebukes in 
the voice of God. To treat the assertion of an agnos- 
tic with altruistic charity, that he sincerely does not 
know God, would be the limit of charity. It presents 
an alternative, however, which involves his private 
judgment, as inviolate as the private communion of 
Spirit. If a person's mental organs are in an abnor- 
mal condition, he could not be responsible for being an 
agnostic, but if his organs were sufficiently normal 
to maintain a policy of selfishness, it could not escape 
the observation of even a child that he was a dissem- 
bler of the highest type, even if the child was so de- 
ficient in literal learning as not to find words to ex- 
press it. 

If a policy is constantly intruding upon the study 
of pure reason, it will dominate the situation. When 
it is good policy to be honest from a literal standpoint, 
the policy should be delegated to material things. It 
is only a symbol of truth that concerns policy which 
relates to the corporal body. It is this perplexity of 
relation that presents a misleading differential be- 
tween the Spiritual and literal effect. It is a conser- 
vative policy to contend against progress, yet pro- 
gress persists because it is strictly an effect of Spirit- 
ual power directed by the innate moral sense that is 
as much a part of humanity as the inspiration of 



46 HUMAN EQUITY 

progress. It does not effect the innate organism 
universally common to the human race, whether learn- 
ing is subjective or objective That is, whether the 
Power acts immediate or direct, or whether mediate 
and indirect, the organism capable of receiving im- 
pressions and transmitting them are distinct personal 
attributes, or communication would be so positive 
that the attempt would not be made in the absence 
of necessity. The important feature of the science of 
life is the persistent effort of the literally learned to 
defend a policy or subjective obedience to objective 
authority. If it were true, it would not require a policy, 
or militant dispute to defend it, hence the "higher 
criticism" is extremely agnostic in its pretence, of 
which the term signifies an ultimate tribunal of learn- 
ing that excludes the more vital relation between 
knowledge and learning, by refusing to recognize that 
the Power innate is not subject to objective control 
but instead it is the source from which learning and 
progress is possible. Before the object will succeed 
in obtaining complete authority over the subject, it 
will be obliged to give the babe a stone instead of 
bread, and prove that an effect can dominate its cause.. 



HUMAN EQUITY 47 



CHAPTER VI. 

TECHNICAL EXCLUSIVENESS. 

ANY effort to maintain esoteric terms will lead in 
the direction of destruction even if the final end 
can be dodged at the last moment. Virtue is con- 
stantly renewing itself from the base as pilgrims seek 
a more lofty elevation with various degrees of success. 
Technical skill in promoting an equable distribution of 
learning is derived from the common inspiration of 
strictly a human distinction over the natural and uni- 
form instinct of animals. If this privilege of progress, 
which makes the caste system of society a possibility, 
is an altruistic principle, a forced exclusiveness by cul- 
tivating esoteric signs of portraying thoughts, is em- 
braced in the category of immoral conduct. A mere 
political fiat of what constitutes morality cannot over- 
rule what the Christian conception of truth and moral- 
ity stand for. It is taken for granted that the right of 
private judgment is admitted by the most civilized 
nations of the world since the dogmatic sentiment of 
theocratic governments have been exploded by even 
the political admission of personal freedom. That 
progress is a divine principle bestowed upon the 
entire human race irrespective of any distinction 
of personality, is the only bases that strict logical 
arguments can be maintained. There is nothing in 
the Bible or Constitution of the United States of 



48 HUMAN EQUITY 

America that commits a single individual to the prero- 
gatives of the ancients ; for that reason all psycholog- 
ical questions founded upon pagan conclusions are as 
obsolete as their political effort to maintain esoteric 
exclusiveness. The same dispositions, however, for 
the strong to prey upon the weak, is too plainly ob- 
vious to require detailed repetition. What the people 
are more interested in is enlightened remedies rather 
than esoteric methods by which they can take ad- 
vantage of each other's weakness. There is no 
remedy for a disease while the cause is carefully 
guarded to protect the remedy. An ideal, "should 
be" will not eliminate an existing cause which con- 
tinues to develop with the developments of remedies. 
If the cause is protected by the same person or class 
of persons who profit by the administration of reme- 
dies, the equity between cause and effect would sim- 
ply be so perfect that one principle would support the 
other like two evils depending upon each other, while 
neither would be tolerated separately. The person 
who cannot practice his own precepts would be a 
negative reformer, regardless of all his technical per- 
formances or material acquirements which might at- 
tract as much worship as a pagan poet. The most 
beautiful sentiment that was ever expressed by tongue 
or pen will never justify the policy of trying to esta- 
blish a synthesis of relation between the words 
"knowledge and learning." 

Technical words can be multiplied to the end of 
time to preserve an exclusiveness between one col- 
lective group of persons and another. 

Each group could be antagonistic to the other 
which is the general object of organization either of- 



HUMAN EQUITY 49 

fensive or defensive. In either case, the principle 
which the words "knowledge" and "learning" signify, 
never needed political protection since time was or 
will be. A mere objection and demand for proof to 
be followed by continued objections, is the limita- 
tion of technical exclusiveness. The principle of 
Truth is above any technical symbol, however perfect 
it may be carved or defined. Hence if knowledge and 
logic signify a negative of Truth, words would not be 
competent to signify any finite principle. The truth 
is the One Supreme principle that will not respond to 
the demand for proof. The absurdity for such a de- 
mand would not be insisted upon except by a person 
strictly committed to esoteric terms rendered with 
technical exactness. 

The mere presence of the new-born infant is the 
evidence of a direct communion of Spirit. The infant 
is declared to be helpless by the esoteric manipula- 
tors of the medium of communication by symbol. To 
dispute this trite sentiment upon which the social 
fabric is declared to rest since progress first suggested 
the use of tools for human beings to rise superior to 
the animal instinct, has always been declared heresy 
by both civil and religious authority Yet the infant, 
without counsel, judge, or jury, disputes this trite 
declaration upon which war has been declared be- 
tween nations, not so much to protect the infant, as 
the continuity of the sentiment of the child's helpless 
advent. The very presence of a live infant denies its 
dependence upon any external authority, From the 
instant it breathes, its every act is a command. The 
entire absence of any understanding from its objective 
surroundings, makes the commanding presence of the 



50 HUMAN EQUITY 

infant a perfect proof of its authority. The impossi- 
bility of obtaining any evidence of the inner presence 
of sentient conception except from the independent 
energy, — that is self-asserting. The infant's commands 
are the immediate point at issue, and it makes all 
theories absurd that pretends to maintain the depen- 
dence of the infant based upon the literal authority 
claiming its advent to be a condition of utter help- 
lessness. 

There is a vast difference between the "helpless- 
ness" of the infant and its defenceless weakness. A 
careless observer would not notice any remarkable dif- 
ference ; and after a cultivated conviction that an in- 
fant depended upon its objective surroundings, it 
would be almost useless to point out the mistake to a 
person betraying such conceit. It would be a draft 
upon charity to believe it to be the result of an ab- 
normal cultivation rather than a deliberate effort to 
parade such an attitude that only later experience 
would reveal it to have been due to ignorance rather 
than intentional conceit. 

To return to the infant for scientifical observations : 
Since the source that makes the observation is the 
point of contention, it presents the relation between 
man and man as a distinct proposition to the relation 
of man and the Power derived from direct revelation 
which the Power itself imparts. In the absence of 
any better presentation of the principle, it is the sa- 
cred communion of Spirit of which the infant is the 
evidence more than science of the most searching 
character has ever been able to penetrate. The limit 
or brink of discovery derived from an unlimited num- 
ber of methods, resulting in mere tentative specula- 



HUMAN EQUITY 5 I 

tion, all of which are labeled, "final results unknown." 
Now the infant is more interested in seeking "bread" 
than it is in discovering the philosophers "stone." It 
is therefore utterly ignorant of its anxious surround- 
ings with its scientific ability to preserve the spark of 
energy that the infant distinctly exhibits. Unfortu- 
nately, from a moral point of view there is a political 
interest to preserve a technical exclusiveness between 
artificial methods and the natural, of which the infant 
is master. It commands attention with undisputed 
authority, for the reason it has no scientific learning 
by which it could enter the controversy of scientific 
investigation. That this simple presentation of the 
Truth is not equally as well known to the learned as 
to the infant, would be absurd for anyone to assert. 
The inquisitive could well ask "why the learned do 
not expose this effort of the infant to obtain a recog- 
nition of a prior authority over all the learning that 
the world has ever developed?" Because civil author- 
ity has been in conflict with Spiritual authority to con- 
trol the infant, since Samuel consented to the inaugu- 
ration of Saul. 

The infant does not represent a greatness of phy- 
sical strength ; but as an evidence of the principle of 
Truth it is no less great than the greatest. The policy 
of greed is an object of attention that cannot be dis- 
posed of by mere ideal precepts, or even legislative 
decrees. It is impossible to disprove the individual 
authority of the infant by abstract argument or mere 
statistics since they do not extend beyond the differ- 
ential of methods when each method is so engrossed 
in maintaining its special method in seeking an ab- 
stracton of the energy that moves things, which calls 



52 HUMAN EQUITY 

for proof that an abstract principle can supersede a 
concrete of which the abstract is a part. 

If a policy of misleading the child can be justified 
by the learned in defiance of reason and the Truth 
constantly being asserted at every birth, the mistakes 
of the ignorant would be virtue in comparison. The 
fact that such an extravagant system of technical 
words is defended as a necessity to keep the populous 
obedient to "law and order", — a condition having no 
bearing whatever upon the relation between man and 
God ; this relation in no sense dependent upon 
words, either written or spoken. Man's relation with 
God is the very Power that transcends the first gasp 
of the babe for breath. The exhasuitve discussions 
embalmed in technical phraseology would not be 
maintained to assist the babe to breathe, for this 
Truth is common among human beings who never 
heard of a book or the English language It certainly 
points to a Power having greater authority than any 
that political sagacity ever established, even allowing 
it to have been with honest intent 

The illiterate child or the most abject specimen of 
the human race knows itself to be in possession of a 
Power that its most essential feature is self-revealing. 
The child walks from an inner energy that forces it to 
be active in a variety of directions. It results in the 
child's walking, of which fact it gives immediate evi- 
dence of knowng. Whoever observed a child take 
its first step, reflecting the effort that every person 
must have made, and then try to concoct a negative 
objection to the direct communion of Spirit in support 
of a policy of misleading the child in the interest of 
some collective system representing temporal author- 



HUMAN EQUITY 53 

ity, or that the relation between man and God de- 
pended upon a complete submission to the authority 
of man over man. To recognize that energy in its 
multitude of employments from the force of gravity 
to dynamics, and chemical action of the most uniform 
character, all of which represent the power to move 
things, is to recognize that energy is no less than God 
since it is an omniparity of authority that no com- 
bination of muscular strength has ever conquered. 

The policy of defending a belief in an objective God 
is evidence that man can divert the conduct of a child 
by the equal privilege to the common energy (God) 
supplemented by a directing authority equally as uni- 
versal as the energy itself. It is worthy of note to 
observe that man has never been able, in whatever 
presentation of ability in using this concrete energy in 
various ways, he has always failed in exercising any 
authority over the energy upon which his movements 
depend. In a normal condition man can move for- 
ward or backward and also scribe a circle, but it is 
confined to the infant to protect the direct communion 
of Spirit that no policy or political manipulation can 
find space enough to interrupt. 

If the babe is not civilly received it can always re- 
turn to the Heaven from which it came. 

The possibility of belief is legion and the written 
authorities in support of beliefs in general presents as 
great a variety as the systems themselves. Each sys- 
tem represents a collection of units greater or less in 
number; to be harmonious in purpose a common end 
is the prime object of the collection. This presup- 
poses that each unit is in perfect accord with the ob- 
ject ; thus, however large the collection could be, it 



54 HUMAN EQUITY 

represents a unity of units banded together in one 
common belief. It is not to the present purpose to 
analyze the differential character of each system of 
belief, but to accept for granted that each system is a 
verity of conviction, equally as potent as the first 
conception of light that breaks upon consciousness 
revealing the Power to taste and feel. If each unit of 
a specific belief is as sincere as the external evidence 
indicates it presents a situation that involves the 
principle of altruism and also a motive of policy rep- 
resenting a distinct opposite. It presents a motive for 
technical extravagance for the sole purpose of mis- 
leading a child in the direction of some specific belief 
that practically degenerates the mental organs that 
the very Power of life first acted upon ; in verity a 
perfect knowledge of God that the devilish greed of 
man seeks to deny, supported by physical strength 
and literal authority manipulated by the same greed, 
against which effort is arrayed every living thing that 
moves, not each object by itself that philosophers 
have tried in vain to prove, but moved by the One 
Power that all sentient objects know to be God, yet 
only a few possess courage enough to admit it. 

When a child's mental faculties have become degen- 
erated from the Spiritually normal, to the physically 
abnormal, regeneracy is more improbable than prob- 
able. Regeneracy becomes less difficult as political 
authority is compelled to relax its tentative regula- 
tions over Spiritual affairs. If the protection and wel- 
fare of the child prompted the effort to establish some 
specific belief in opposition to the Spiritual conception, 
it would not require technical methods of secrecy to 
effect it. It is no secret that a child can be taught 



HUMAN EQUITY 55 

to believe anything after confidence is established. It 
is absurd under such conditions to treat the Power 
to perceive prior to conception as having any directing 
influence over the character of object the subject must 
come in contact with to establish conception, that pos- 
sessed the latent Power of God, or Knowledge, just 
as perfect before a contact with material substance as 
after self-consciousness. That is, the Power to con- 
ceive in no sense was derived from the object per- 
ceived. The relation of belief to the Truth that the 
very presence of the infant establishes, shows the mo- 
tive for the elaborate effort of technical exclusiveness 
to divert the Spiritual Truth into an abstract belief. 
The fact that the belief of one day is disbelief the fol- 
lowing, does not compare with the Truth revealed to 
the babe, no less true at the beginning than at the end. 



56 HUMAN EQUITY 



CHAPTER VII. 

THE BALANCE OF POWER. 

THE absolute and exclusive relation between indi- 
vidual person and God will not permit of in- 
structing an individual so embalmed in a belief that 
he fears to lose it if he even meditates upon a proposi- 
tion separate from the belief. It simply strengthens 
the verity of God and Person in each individual sub- 
ject of entire humanity. The word "belief" is ex- 
tremely nominal, also convenient to maintain a dual 
deference of equal importance, for either immediate 
or mediate conveyance. It is only the ultra learned 
in etymology that can use words to accomplish some 
desired end regardless of equity or justice. On such 
occasion, however, moral restrictions have no recog- 
nition when some material regard is the sole end in 
view. It is the ability of man to dissemble by the in- 
strumentality of versatile words that effects the com- 
mon understanding. The common man is frequently 
held like a vise in a condition of abject authority. He 
is told and taught by his fellow men who give an ex- 
ternal appearance of superiority that he must believe 
whatever he is told to believe, and to be extremely 
careful not to believe what he wants to believe him- 
self. A case of this kind is not confined to the illite- 
rate strictly, for evidence is too common to require 
details. A man must deny natural perception not to 



HUMAN EQUITY 57 

observe that the ultra learned, from external evidence 
at least, are strictly held to a belief having no firmer 
foundation than literal authority. Surely if a literal 
person fairly embalmed in etymology can be so degen- 
erated from his beginning or individual birth, that 
his belief is strictly confined to book authority, it is 
not remarkable that the confidence of an illiterate 
person be readily obtained. 

It is mere speculation to observe that scarcely one 
individual person in a thousand possesses a clear com- 
prehension of the relation of a belief to the principle 
of conception and perception. It is neither strange 
nor remarkable that a thousands individuals can be 
trained to believe whatever they are taught to believe 
against the possibility of one who, being compelled by 
force of circumstances to work out an intricate cal- 
culus of what to disbelieve, rather than what he is told 
to believe. It reflects what anyone has the natural 
ability to work out, that moral courage constitutes 
the balance of power between good and evil. It would 
be well to bear in mind as an assistance to overcom- 
ing the various attraction as a thousand to one, that 
knowledge is the Power to learn, rather than cling 
to a belief that knowledge is a result of learning. It 
would no doubt appear paradoxical to any person who 
was honestly embalmed in specific belief, for that rea- 
son it is very important to consider the relation be- 
tween knowledge and learning, that is, if sufficient 
doubt exists to attract enough attention to analyze 
the difference between Truth and belief. A complete 
surrender, however, to objective authority presents a 
situation so nearly hopeless that assistance would be 
resented. It would be largely due to the cause of such 



58 HUMAN EQUITY 

a desperate belief which was too much assistance. 
The worst cases, however, of embalmed belief have 
sometimes yielded to the absence of treatment, when 
the meditative faculty of the mind would rally and 
discover at once, by virtue of experiences derived from 
too much assistance, that the Truth was an intrinsic 
principle of strictly a Spiritual character, if not God 
certainly no less perfect. It is no greater discovery 
than the infant makes at birth, but the continuity of 
birth in the form of experience involves the privilege 
of conduct with the policy of belief and material at- 
tractions that the wonder is that even one in a thou- 
sand can discover the policy of maintaining such a 
fallacy as an "unknown God." 

This continuous policy of seeking God with a view 
to establishing a common belief that Spirit is invisible, 
is remarkable on account of the failure that follows 
every new movement in that direction. If the same 
diligence was directed to discover the motive it would 
throw a little light at least upon what is so eagerly 
desired. If the motive is to improve the Spiritual wel- 
fare of the child and natural man, it could be more 
readily found than to search for the origin of heat or 
some method by which time and space could be 
mathematically and scientifically determined. To con- 
sign a child to abstract belief when its very presence 
represents a concrete Truth, is to present one reason 
at least why the scientific effort is more to establish 
a negative rather than admit a positive, that the child 
cannot be deprived of without committing the equiva- 
lent of murder. 

The combined effort of all the ultra learned never 
succeeded in materializing a soul that compares with 



HUMAN EQUITY 59 

the reality, sufficiently visible to make a dispute of its 
presence absurd. Since all the letters and instruments 
that human progress has invented has constantly been 
hurled at the babe and primitive man, it has not dis- 
turbed his title a single atom, to a direct communion 
with God. Now when the ultra learned agree to agree 
that God is unknown, they naturally feel safe against 
the efforts of the babe and primitive man, for to dis- 
pute it in literal terms acceptable to the ultra learned 
would exhaust time and space before such a millen- 
nium could possibly occur. Progress would have to be 
successfully chained, and the door of Spiritual com- 
munion would have to be locked by policy and greed 
even to their own destruction. This would be a sci- 
entific result by a mathematical calculus on aristote- 
lian lines. The visual organs of the babe may not be 
able to perceive objects, and this fact would be readily 
grasped by a negative objector more cultivated in 
negatives than positives. It would also reflect proof 
that more effort was made to prove the invisibility of 
God rather than admit frankly that God was neither 
unknown or invisible. Heat can be felt by a babe, and 
if that is disputed it can certainly taste, for it will re- 
fuse to take vinegar while it will accept sweets. 

God is revealed to the blind by the fragrances of 
a rose. To hear a bird sing or hear the breakers dash 
against the rocks is to recognize the voice of God. 
Therefore it is only the effort of policy and greed to 
maintain authority over whatever recedes in fear or 
can be conquered by physical strength. The individ- 
ual, however, who discovers that he is master of his 
own conduct, will defy all objective authority since 
it is shorn of its attractive influence. 



60 HUMAN EQUITY 

To admit the omniparity of God and then deny it 
by a negative assertion that He is unknown is 
strictly confined to a narrow mind, so thoroughly cul- 
tivated in negatives that it becomes a positive in prac- 
tice. It is painful to read brilliant works of fiction and 
also scientific dictums of what is good conduct with a 
familiarity of what is evil conduct that reflect the per- 
sonal character of the writer more vividly than the 
most attractive scenes, or minute mathematical exact- 
ness that the most ultra learned can present. The 
mere excuse of human imperfection casts a reproach 
upon the omniparity of God or His omnipresence. To 
cultivate a negative until it becomes a positive be- 
lief, is the misleading path that illuminates appear- 
ances in proportion as the distance from reality be- 
comes extended. Whoever has anything to exchange 
will become so interested in making it presentable 
that the welfare of the purchaser is entirely neglected. 
The extreme care by which an object is decorated is 
to mislead the receiver, not for the benefit of the one 
to be misled, as it could be asserted, for the very dec- 
oration affirms more than speech that the sole object 
of the decoration was to attract an object for the ad- 
vantage of the subject decorated. 

The psychologist decorates his efforts in vain to 
prove an objective God, which directs the conduct of 
the subject through the mediate instrumentality of 
acquired learning (not knowledge, for to be strictly 
logical, learning is the product of knowledge which in 
all cases is the infinite source.) There is no necessity 
to dispute the psychologist for the necessity to deco- 
rate his profession is sufficient evidence that he has 
got something to exchange, for which he is seeking 



HUMAN EQUITY 6 I 

either purchasers or followers. It is often equally as 
difficult to prove a positive as it is a negative, or that 
appearances are ever presented so attractive as to 
transcend reality. It goes without advertising that 
negatives are more popular than positives, for a crowd 
can be led away from their base of supplies with a 
bass drum that has nothing inside with only noise of 
no nourishing quality outside. Because a negative 
can be employed to such a great advantage it is often 
remarked by really good people who are embalmed 
in their own conviction : "Why will people act so 
when they ought to know better?" 

To dispute the Power that moves things, one must 
either stand still or admit his abnormal condition of 
comprehension to be obstructed by some physical dis- 
order over which he has no control. It is not uncom- 
mon for a psychologist to assert that abnormal con- 
duct was due to a diseased mind rather than any phy- 
sical defect. One would have to be as familiar with 
metaphysics as Aristotle to dispute him with satisfac- 
tory proof, but strange to say his familiarity with the 
subject demonstrated the possibility of an abnormal 
condition more successfully than any objective effort 
could possibly refute. 

If conduct was subject to objective direction there 
would be no need for a scientific analysis of a subject 
by objective effort, for conduct would be strictly a 
matter of fact over which the subject would have 
neither directing influence over his actions nor could 
such a person be logically held responsible for con- 
duct that was admitted to be due to external direction. 
Because one person can compel another to serve him, 
it distributes the principle of conduct equally between 



62 HUMAN EQUITY 

the subject and object. That is, it would be a matter 
of conduct to demand obedience which also repre- 
sented conduct. Each would be a party to miscon- 
duct demonstrating the extreme opposite of any pos- 
sible need for a psychological investigation to deter- 
mine whether the directing influence was objective or 
subjective; the evidence being so perfect that the di- 
recting function was in both cases a strictly internal 
affair. In obedience an evidence of fear is doubtless 
the directing influence, while the desire to be served 
was the controlling function that caused the demand 
for service. Particulars would not change the essen- 
tial feature of the principle, that the Power was at 
the command of whatever function required its use, 
and the mere analysis of the numerous functions and 
physical organisms has no effect whatever upon the 
common operating Power that the entire physical 
movement of everything whether sentient or insen- 
tient depends. 

It would be as futile to analyze ashes to determine 
the origin of fire as it would be to analyze functions 
and material organs to determine a Power that asserts 
itself with more promptness and evident reality than 
all the skeptical effort to prove that a negative specu- 
lation can command a positive Power of which every- 
thing that moves gives evidence. 

A thinking person with courage enough to think 
his own thoughts could scarcely be so irreverent as 
to find fault because he could not command the Power 
by which he was able to think. If God is more than 
what he exhibits in the energy by which objects are 
moved, it presents a stubbornness in proportion to 
the negative objectors, who refuse to except the vis- 



HUMAN EQUITY 63 

ible evidence. It follows that a refusal to acknowl- 
edge a visible presence would not be a prerequisite to 
be able to distinguish His invisible presence. 

The policy of maintaining a theory of external in- 
fluence directing internal movement, enables a de- 
signing individual to secure material advantage over 
another less able. The principle is legalized by pol- 
icy again, and it would appear on the surface that ma- 
terial strength controlled Spiritual Power. The ultra 
learned never contend with each other over the su- 
premacy of the material over the Spiritual. There is 
an individual instinct which is not only self revealing, 
but it also conveys to the mind a clear conception 
that the same principle is universal. No learned 
preacher would attempt to maintain a doctrine nega- 
tive to this principle. Political manipulation of what 
is well known to be spiritual compels the most sincere 
preacher to adopt a modified form of policy, before 
he could attract sufficient attention to denounce the 
principle of policy as generally understood, while he 
appears to sustain the principle in support of his ma- 
terial interests. It is, however, confined to the vaga- 
ries of literal words which were only permitted in the 
past by political consent. Literal words bear the same 
relation to speech as material things to Spiritual ac- 
tivity. It does not necessarily contaminate a me- 
chanic because he is compelled to use poor tools, or 
reconstruct them before he can do good work. It is 
the same with a preacher or teacher, he is compelled 
to reconstruct words or change their standard defini- 
tion before Spiritual thoughts can be portrayed. No 
person can be designing effectively without some 
method of communicating conceived thoughts. The 



64 HUMAN EQUITY 

picture, however, will reflect the design ; may it be po- 
litical or moral, it can never be continually disguised 
with a policy to elevate the effect above the cause. A 
man may think it would be dangerous to permit the 
common people to know the Truth except as it is 
literally dealt out to them, but there are others who 
think that the Truth is revealed direct; it not being 
a principle that can be absolutely withheld by the 
policy of man. It is the babe therefore that repre- 
sents the balance of Power against the policy of mis- 
leading it for a material purpose, an effect rather than 
the cause, which is Spiritual. 



HUMAN EQUITY 65 



CHAPTER VIII. 

SUBJECTIVE INFLUENCE. 

FOR ages since man was first introduced to the 
bounties of Nature it has been a matter of specu- 
lation to discover the relation of God to man. The 
relation was too simple from a natural standpoint, 
hence man no sooner discovered that he could make 
things with his hands which as a matter of course be- 
came objective in accordance with the use of the word 
"object," reflecting what is claimed to be perceived 
prior to the sense of perception. To be convinced of 
this postulate simply because no other has been dis- 
covered to supersede it, would be the Truth according 
to Spencer, and all the literal authorities of the past. 
The very foundation of civilization is claimed to rest 
upon a "postulate." It is more correctly the founda- 
tion of a policy so carefully guarded that the magical 
influence that was attached to every progressive event 
discovered by the ancients. The postulate and some 
simple act of incantation was the only method by 
which a discovery could be patented or its benefits 
securely held by the discoverer. 

Reality was common to animals — it would not sat- 
isfy the progressive ambition of man to simply make 
things with his hand. He must supersede reality or 
admit he was not superior to animals who could make 
things with their feet and mouth, and by continually 



66 HUMAN EQUITY 

turning around in a nest give it a touch of art that pro- 
voked the envy of man, who became so jealous of the 
animals that he would demonstrate to them at least 
that man's mission on earth was to conquer or destroy 
whatever opposed his ambition or vanity. Thus prog- 
ress from the start declared war against the past. The 
odds were a unity of negatives against a single posi- 
tive. 

Mystery became so popular that the magician was 
as much deceived as his victims. The former because 
he did know what it meant, and the latter because he 
wanted to know, from the fact that the mystery held 
the attention of the victim. It established a system of 
exchange and correspondence that flattered the van- 
ity of man in his remarkable success over the positive 
reality of animals, which were really superior from 
the lack of progressive ability that always had the 
burden of vanity to contend with. 

The objective glory of man rests as securely upon 
his ability to be mysterious with material things., as 
his subjective glory does upon his deferential choice 
between good and evil. It is vastly more important 
for a person to follow what he knows, allowing it is 
a mere trifle and even objectively foolish, since it 
would be less foolish than to follow something that 
he knows nothing of except it was mysterious. Sub- 
jective influence is the real base from which progress 
rests as secure against objective mystery as time and 
space rests upon eternity. The proof is the influence 
itself revealing a progressive instinct no more mysteri- 
ous than the non-progressive instinct revealed to ani- 
mals. The policy of the mysterious man is to prove 
by the number of followers he can obtain that objec- 



HUMAN EQUITY 6 J 

tive authority commands subjective reality. It is a 
stern chase like the philosopher that tried to jump 
over his own shadow, and looking back to observe it 
behind him, was greatly concerned to observe that it 
persisted in remaining in front It was only the mys- 
terious man or ultra learned that was able to fathom 
this mystery of shadows, that is, to determine whether 
the shadow was the object perceived conveyed to the 
subject perceiving; the conceptive ability to compre- 
hend it was his own shadows. There is no record of 
the commercial value of shadows, but the fact that the 
ultra learned grew immensely rich is the point to be 
observed. 

The instinct of progress inherent in the subject en- 
abling a person to flee from fear or courageously defy- 
ing it, was the same subjective energy that enabled 
the subject to flee from the object feared, as to defy 
its mysterious conduct. 

Policy, as a principle of conduct, would not be such 
if it did not discover it could apply the innate Power 
to move things in whatever direction the emotional 
senses direct, whether it be right or wrong. This 
feature relieves the Power from any responsibility of 
directing the conduct, it merely furnishes the energy, 
while the responsibility of conduct rests entirely with 
the senses, or policy would be so uniform that even 
mystery would not excite the emotions, when prog- 
ress itself would be a dream, and policy would not be 
productive enough to defy the moral sense of which 
the promptings of conscience in a normal condition 
would be the custodian. It needs no argument to con- 
vince a subject with Power enough to meditate, and 
emotion enough to be conscious of it, that policy is op- 



68 HUMAN EQUITY 

posed to virtue, as much so as progress is to a con- 
servative finality of previous results. That is, policy 
is the logical opponent of progress, and also the father 
of mystery which misleads the credulous away from 
their natural or spiritual virtue. 

The concrete functions pertaining to subjective 
consciousness is just as much a direct revelation as 
the breath of life. If God is objective to this strict! ty 
subjective influence, it presents an inconstancy of au- 
thority, that would make God an objective director, a 
coadjutor of political authority. The most degenerate 
individual could not exhibit a perfidy more unreason- 
able. The excuse of ignorance or predisposition to 
depravity would not convince an illiterate person, that 
intellectual policy was necessary to preserve the hu- 
man race from destruction by reason of its progressive 
instinct, a common inheritance as much so as the 
breath of life. 

It is not necessary to dispute the directing influ- 
ence of God, whether He is subjective or objective, so 
long as the influence is recognized. It makes no dif- 
ference whether souls are material or Spiritual from a 
literal standpoint. Subjective influence is an emo- 
tional consciousness that feels and tastes; the Power 
therefore makes it possible for the subject to be self- 
conscious. How can it be less than the Truth; it is 
certainly more than any temporal authority has got to 
its credit. If the psychologist has discovered that a 
subject must come in contact with an object before 
it can become conscious, only proves it to be a politi- 
cal subterfuge, which would not be politics if it ad- 
mitted that the Truth had no use for its services. It 
remains unproved that the subject depends upon ob- 



HUMAN EQUITY 69 

jective authority for its sense of conception. The 
Spiritual rendering of the Scriptures does not main- 
tain an objective authority over the subjective, even 
if the political rendering strictly confined to the letter 
declares it was proved and settled beyond dispute by 
scholars competent to understand it. But what has 
politics got to do with the Bible since the Declaration 
of Independence with its most altruistic sentiment 
expressing the very soul of the Book? 

A lump of sugar is objective to the babe which at 
the same time it is subjective to the sugar. The 
sugar is sweet by common consent, not by reason of 
the consent of etymology, but because it is known to 
be sweet. How was it discovered to be sweet is the 
present point of observation? Admitting the contact 
to be an important feature it was still more important 
that the emotional function of taste was a part of the 
babe's existence with the necessaiy energy making 
the subject and its predicate complete without any as- 
sistance from the lump of sugar. It would be hair- 
splitting for objective authority to insist upon its abil- 
ity to prevent the necessary contact, for it would in- 
troduce another feature, making itself a subject to ob- 
jective policy which would involve the life or death 
of the babe. To confine the observation to the ability 
of the babe to conceive that sugar was sweet, repre- 
sents the relation between objective authority and 
subjective influence. If the subjective influence in- 
cluding the function of taste, and the activity to oper- 
ate the function was not the principle feature of con- 
ception, the presentation of a stone objectively would 
be equally as sweet to the subject as a lump of sugar. 
It is the power of God involved in this presentation; 



7<D HUMAN EQUITY 

it is no trifle to be brushed away by objective author- 
ity based upon the support of the letter objectively 
and the Spirit subjectively. Objective etymology is 
limited to the relative comparison of symbols by 
which objects are known with their various actions 
and qualities. Subjective humanity can be considered 
individually or collectively as subject, but the infant's 
cry is: "Subject! to what? before Abraham I am." Is 
man's fiat the mere echo of a like conception able as a 
logical fact to compel a subject to believe he is under 
some figurative object that the policy of man can in- 
vent by the emotional function of progress that is a 
part of human birth. What is progress, if it is not dis- 
carding the old and pulling on the new, or profiting 
by the mistakes of the past which teach what to shun 
rather than exemplify what to emulate. 

To recognize that policy was objective and also neg- 
ative to whatever was natural or positive, would pre- 
sent a motive for maintaining a theory of objective 
authority over subjective influence. It thus becomes 
a question of private judgment over which objective 
authority becomes an abnormal delusion, or an attrac- 
tive mystery depending upon credulity to obtain fol- 
lowers to make the mystery mysterious. Mystery 
becomes an aid to progress when it is individually dis- 
covered that it is no mystery to the person who, by 
stress of circumstances, was compelled to admit that 
it was not objective in reality , but just as much 
dependent upon subjective influence as the beating of 
the heart or action of the lungs is dependent upon 
breathing. It is not only idle but absurd to ask ques- 
tions of a person, pertaining to a negative belief or 
objective authority. When a person reflects a conduct 



HUMAN EQUITY 7 I 

of subjective influence by desiring to be informed the 
reason why people will chase a mystery until they 
run it down only to find it was a trumped up object to 
mislead the credulous who, in their weakness for mys- 
tery will follow like children until their confidence is 
betrayed ; when nothing but moral courage will adjust 
the principle of progress on lines of human equity. 

The policy of maintaining that God is a mystery 
necessitates a supporting comparison by presenting 
two mysteries, each supporting the other which es- 
tablishes a positive. Literal words are therefore legal- 
ized by a standard definition ; for instance, the word 
"subject" means under, while "object" means over or 
above. If there was no Spiritual influence to contend 
with there would be no occasion for a policy of mys- 
tery to hold the credulous in a state of servitude. It 
is practically an admission of a deceptive motive 
when it requires studious care in seeking to explain 
one mystery by presenting another. Thus when it is 
asserted that God is a mystery, the student seeking to 
investigate, must first become learned in the names of 
things, and when political authority will severely pun- 
ish a person for bearing two names, such authority 
does not hesitate to practice the same method for no 
other purpose than to appear to possess an authority 
over Spiritual authority. This principle underlies 
every political effort since man discovered he could 
misrepresent the Truth by giving to it literally a mys- 
terious appearance. 

If a person believes there is an objective God that 
directs his conduct, he knows whether he affirms it as 
a purpose of policy. In either case it would be unwise 
to even attempt to disprove it, for if a person is sin- 



72 HUMAN EQUITY 

cere it would be a disrespect to the principle of private 
judgment not to recognize an equity of belief. Also 
it would be equally unwise to attempt to disprove 
what a person must know if he is prompted by policy, 
that he is trying to maintain a faise position. The 
truth as a Spiritual principle, it does not effect 
whether it is a sincere belief or a policy to hold that 
God is objective. It is for the meditative mind to ex- 
amine this important proposition by the same rule it is 
affirmed. That is by the comparative test of words 
whether a political object can transcend a Spiritual 
subject by a mere fiat of declaration. Is it logical to 
hold that substance falls up, allowing the subject and 
object are both a substance? The most important re- 
lation between a subject and object is to fall, and in 
order to fall the subject falling must be above the ob- 
ject that the subject comes in contact with. In this 
particular the object cannot be "above" the subject 
and to maintain that God is objective for the conven- 
ience of policy which maintains an attractive mystery 
to mislead the credulous and sustain a belief on the 
ground that all posterity has been continually in- 
structed to believe it, is simply absurd. God's author- 
ity is no less a fact whether He is objective or sub- 
jective, for these terms are a mere policy limited to 
material things, having no relation to the Spiritual 
other than the necessity of a predicate to move things. 
When a person discovers this simple Truth, whether 
it is withheld from lack of courage or not, such a per- 
son cannot be convinced by policy or any form of 
theory that God is a mystery or unknown, for to dis- 
cover it is to know it. Any object either animate or 
inanimate should be able to comprehend without as- 



HUMAN .EQUITY 73 

sistance that whatever substance is sustained above 
its base composed of substance also is dependent upon 
its base for support. In like manner when an object 
may temporarily maintain a situation above a sub- 
ject, it is only possible by recognizing that its posi- 
tion depends upon a subject for support. Therefore 
subjective influence transcends any objective effort 
that man has ever accomplished since political effort 
has tried to obstruct the march of human progress. 



74 HUMAN EQUITY 



CHAPTER IX. 

NATURAL PROGRESS. 

WHEN a person knows God all mystery becomes 
dissolved and can be explained continuously 
without an atom of error subjectively. But to a per- 
son who clings to mystery as a bridge between the 
present and the future, this bridge of mystery would 
be an obstacle rather than a means by which the de- 
sired end could be reached. A presentation of com- 
munication in a strict conformity to the letter is im- 
possible when spiritual communion is the desired end. 
To insist upon a material method of Spiritual corre- 
spondence presents an impossibility that really pre- 
serves the sacred character of personal communion 
with God. The necessary literal method of communi- 
cation between man and man thoroughly explains 
whatever mystery may be employed by one man to 
beguile another. The person who quakes with fear 
can be persuaded to follow, but on no account will a 
person defy a mystery once it becomes inculcated into 
a firm belief. Thoughts are as free as the ability to 
move forward or back at will, but fear is an emotion 
that can be played upon so effectually that the free- 
dom of thought can be controlled by external influ- 
ences. It is the boast therefore of the so-called edu- 
cated man that he can overcome a multitude by his 
superior cunning. He carries a burden of conceit, 



HUMAN EQUITY 75 

however, that often subdues his boldness since the 
cry of a babe (the voice of God) will pluck out all his 
feathers. 

Experience will defy literal precepts, for the semi- 
learned presents a more dangerous problem for peace- 
ful society to manipulate than extreme ignorance or 
illiteracy. When the relation of the literal to the Spir- 
itual is considered in connection with positive prog- 
ress, it introduces Natural Progress in comparison to 
material progress. This difference makes it possible 
for political authority to maintain a supervision over 
illiteracy. It presents a situation paradoxical in a 
strict regard for the Truth, since the principle of prog- 
ress must be recognized as a revelation — something 
divulged — whether it is transmitted direct or indirect, 
in no sense does it deprive the principle of its positive 
character. Whether it is a natural growth or an arti- 
ficial development, progress is no less a truism. 
Whether it is the result of political condescension or 
a personal sacrifice by declaration, it appears from the 
evidence of political ingenuity that nothing but strict 
moral influence is concerned in real progress. Skepti- 
cal and negative declarations can be extended to the 
end of time but science even has always failed in its 
effort to extend a positive principle, or what should 
be recognized as a Spiritual entity. It merely betrays 
skepticism embalmed in conceit to mistake a belief for 
the Truth. A belief to be such is a non-progressive 
entity, or a political fraud. An elastic thought assert- 
ing itself to be both positive and negative, presents a 
condition of embalmed satisfaction that would defy 
paradise to offer greater attraction. 

It is impossible for a Spiritual entity to be acquired 



j6 HUMAN EQUITY 

in the same sense that conception is revealed. That 
is, birth, revelation, and the various functions of sen- 
sation are not acquired to accommodate a belief, sim- 
ply because it is a privilege to believe it. If natural 
progress was only an entity of belief, there would be 
no effect of ether revelation or acquirements ; the 
principles would be interchangeable like two nega- 
tives in contention, making a positive condition from 
which progress of any character would be absurd. 

It has always been the policy of rulers to defend 
any objective authority over material things. There 
is no better proof of the sacred communion of Spirit 
directly revealed than the presumptive efforts of the 
most primitive chief, seeking to abuse the privilege of 
deifying himself in defense of an objective directing 
authority, for the purpose of justifying his own ty- 
rannical acts. It would be idle to apologize for the 
weakness of primitive man for the identical purpose of 
justifying an objective authority of man over man. It 
is the persistent effort to obtain more than is rendered 
in return. While it is due to natural progress, it pre- 
sents a danger in admitting human equity which, in 
realty, is the attractive principle that progress de- 
pends upon. There is a moral perception, however, 
derived from the direct revelation of knowledge that 
renders it possible to avoid failing into the pit so dili- 
gently dug for others in response to objective author- 
ity ; the scheme is affected by subjective influence 
when the Power of God is acknowledged and no ob- 
jective policy can prevail against this principle. 

Objective authority depends upon a belief in indirect 
revelation. Subjective authority is so positive in its 
action that neither belief or unbelief can effect a stay of 



HUMAN EQUITY J J 

proceedings. To believe sincerely in objective author- 
ity, necessarily excludes a belief in the positive or sub- 
jective authority. But reason insists upon the personal 
freedom of thought even if objective authority pos- 
sesses all the ammunition of wit and ridicule of which 
articulate language is master; positive revelation con- 
tinues to maintain its subjective influence and lives to 
witness objective authority filling the pits of its own 
digging with its exclusive egoism. When a person has 
courage enough to consider what the freedom of 
thought really means, objective authority will be con- 
signed to the junk heap, and the beat of time will 
mark off natural progress with the regularity of sun 
rise and sun set. Devotees of objective authority can 
waste their lives in seeking some new mystery to 
frighten children and credulous humanity, but natural 
progress will maintain its subjective influence by di- 
rect revelation at every birth. Skeptical assertions 
and all doctrines to be such are based upon specula- 
tion, mystery and any attractive method by which a 
belief in objective authority can be maintained. No 
person could be blamed for being born, which is 
equally true of whatever belief one may entertain ; it 
is therefore the objective authority that is responsible 
for the evil conduct that society is more devoted to 
hiding, than trying to practice a knowledge of direct 
revelation which cannot be shook off by the support 
of Ml who believe in indirect revelation which depends 
WT)on being envelooed in clothes of mystery to contra- 
dict the positive character of progress. 

T n a strict comorehension of the Truth, no less than 
q ^o^nmunion of Spirit, Nature is just as much a part 
of Q oiritual entity as any energy that moves a leaf or 



y& HUMAN EQUITY 

stirs a human thought. The leaf can be treated with 
contempt in comparison to the freedom of thought, 
but each proves itself to be a part of Spiritual entity 
for the reason it is more often that both are treated 
with contempt than to recognize that God is the One 
energy that moves everything that does move. Be- 
cause light needs darkness for a base relief a positive 
needs a negative, or a nonentity would fill the space 
that is occupied by society. For the same reason the 
subject and object contends with each other for su- 
premacy or servitude. Submission of the one or the 
other is a positive condition of peace, but the Power 
of God will not permit of man entering into a non-pro- 
gressive compact, that would practically transcend 
the direct revelation, and substitute a political belief 
for a spiritual reality. Not every seed produces, 
neither does every birth progress, but every effort of 
man to point to material progress in support of politi- 
cal prowess, in opposition to natural progress, pre- 
sents a continual failure ; a non-progressive persist- 
ency that should be instructive if not convincing. 

The main point is that Nature may be degraded by 
objective ability to symbolize subjects and predicates, 
supported by militant authority, but Nature continues 
to maintain its relation to Spiritual entity, with perfect 
indifference to political activity in digging objective 
pits that subjects are fast learning how to escape, 
when it is observed that objective conceit becomes en- 
gulfed like Pharaoh and his host in the gulf from 
which the subject in its moral confidence escapes. 
However figurative a moral principle may be pre- 
sented it does not detract an atom from the Truth that 
the Power of God is constantly being revealed. 



HUMAN EQUITY 79 

There is no reason to believe that Nature is any less 
a part of Spiritual entity, because of a policy which 
would not be such if it did not present the negative 
side of a positive Truth. If there were no difficulties 
progress would be a non-entity with nothing to move, 
having no need for a miraculous Power to move 
things. God is no less than the Truth, which policy 
and belief with its variations are unable to maintain 
its position any longer than it can frighten the credu- 
lous ; it has certainly no better foundation than the 
Truth. In justice therefore to the Truth it would ap- 
pear to be a political design of the order of mythology 
to even attempt to prove that one Spiritual part was 
superior to other parts. It would be neither scientific 
or logical. The relation of theology to the Truth has 
no support from either logic or science; and strange 
to say, these two principles have no policy in view 
of their declaration of purpose which is to obtain a 
reasonable comprehension of the Truth. Now theo- 
logy is exclusively distinct in its declaration; it was 
just as much a part of mythology and politics before 
the Christian era as when the new regime was re- 
vealed to humanity. The important feature for theo- 
logy to account for is, that it was an integral part of 
politics, in fact politics was the supporting part, but 
each contributed to the existence of the other. It is a 
very dull scholar who would attempt to find any poli- 
tics in the example of Christ when He could have 
escaped the crucifixion by embracing political author- 
ity. Christianity could be called a scheme, but it pre- 
sented a positive principle, recognizing no negative 
upon which civil governments are founded by reason 
of their diversified policies. 



80 HUMAN EQUITY 

If Christianity was a scheme, and by the negative 
mind treated analogous to politics, it should be ob- 
served that the scheme was in purpose, a path to 
freedom and a redemption from political oppression. 
It is too inconsistent for an intelligent argument to 
find a single touch of politics in Christianity, for poli- 
tics relates to the science of civil government. Civil 
government and Spiritual government presents the 
same difference as that between a positive and nega- 
tive, or that between the Truth and a belief. This gulf 
is guarded by the same political sagacity that crucified 
Christ. With the freedom of thought this gulf can 
be bridged in defiance of political sagacity, when di- 
rect communion with God can be re-established as pri- 
marily revealed at birth. 

It presents a reason why political sagacity contin- 
ues to maintain an esoteric authority over etymology. 
It is made to appear that Nature is subject to an ob- 
jective authority; and even the Scriptures are claimed 
to be subordinate to objective interpretation which 
can be readily proved by the esoteric command of the 
etymology of written words possessing definitions 
mounted on swivels. It could be observed by anyone 
recognizing his freedom of .thoughts, that to admit 
even a belief, that Nature's relations to God was inte- 
gral, it presents the crowning glory of political saga- 
city (if the success of the devil can be called glory) 
to separate Nature from God by maintaining an eso- 
teric tribunal of last resort over the symbols of 
speech, to condemn the least effort of an individual 
to assert the right of private judgment. That is, the 
sagacious ingenuity of a high-grade politician would 
admit the right of private judgment, but would imme- 



HUMAN EQUITY 8 1 

diately refer an inquirer to written authorities pre- 
senting a thousand reasons why it was dangerous to 
assert anything not previously passed upon by the 
esoteric tribunal in undisputed control of the etymo- 
logy of words. 

Even the most skeptical scholars in controversy 
with extreme orthodox scholars, are united in the def- 
erential worship of the esoteric tribunal. It out-popes 
the pope, this esoteric thunder, but its relation with 
natural progress would compare with Luther's effort 
to steal the thunder of the Catholic Church, but was 
out-generaled by the equally sagacious officials of the 
Church, who evidently saw the advantage of retain- 
ing the Lightning, without which, the thunder would 
be analogous to the esoteric tribunal of these enlight- 
ened times trying to analyze the symphony of lite- 
rary noise, to determine the spiritual relation between 
Nature and God. To admit frankly that the babe was 
in closer communion with Spirit — God — or Nature it 
would not be politics, but it would be clinging to the 
Lightning and yielding the thunder to the esoteric 
tribunal who would become a non-entity except for 
the noise by which children and weaklings can be 
frightened into a state of terror, which supports poli- 
tical sagacity. Noise and motion are strictly an effect 
of Spiritual energy. Because the great mass of hu- 
manity are slow to recognize there would be no op- 
pressors except for their fears, politics thrives. The 
oppressor has nothing to depend upon but his external 
parade, for it is the only method by which he can ex- 
pect to shake off the knowledge of his wickedness. 

Nature keeps a strict account of the conduct of 
every person, with experience for a voucher, Freedom 



82 HUMAN EQUITY 

is shackeled to courage just as securely as ever a slave 
was shackeled to involuntary servitude. When a per- 
son overdraws his account with the bank of Nature 
he would be more comfortable if he had never been 
born. Repairs are always in order, but the person 
who dares to defy his experience, and follow the ob- 
jective attractions that he will be obliged to support 
he will be subject to repairs as long as he tries to im- 
prove Nature, instead of recognizing that Nature is 
trying to improve him. 

Natural progress is more or less a forward move- 
ment, as every morning becomes a new day. It pre- 
sents a constant disintegration of objective authority 
over subjective reality — a political negation con- 
stantly receding in proportion to the subjective cour- 
age in recognizing the direct communion of every liv- 
ing thing that can command its own motion. It is a 
Spiritual entity without which experience would be as 
impossible as for objective authority to overcome 
natural progress. 



HUMAN EQUITY 83 



CHAPTER X. 

MATERIAL PROGRESS. 

AN endless presentation of the effect of religious 
liberty is a necessity to counteract the persistency 
of greed to oppress every living thing that leads to the 
end desired. To present a new doctrine or some sys- 
tem of reform needing support or followers, would be 
a mere extension of objective authority which can 
only be conquered by direct communion with Spirit. 
It would transcend the political effort to materialize 
Spirit by ideal thought, since by such effort political 
authority could be influenced to support it. 

Material progress is an effect of the natural. It 
either follows by attraction or propelled by Spiritual 
energy, the very entity of God. An ideal belief would 
be impossible without the energy which the belief 
may reject. A person has no occasion to believe he 
exists, because when the fact is revealed to him he 
knows it. A disrespect therefore for the energy em- 
ployed in producing the belief is no better observed 
than to witness the pretension of foreordination and 
predictions. By the same energy that a person can 
believe, he can also disbelieve. Directing influence 
often attracts more attention than the necessary en- 
ergy that is the executor, rather than the director. It 
is very simple to believe in objective influence after 
the cultivation of desire to a condition of unreason- 
able greed. Material reward becomes very attractive 



84 HUMAN EQUITY 

since the attention becomes so concentrated as to lose 
sight of the Power by which means only, progress of 
any character is possible. Objective influence is no 
less an entity than subjective energy, but the neglect 
to recognize the relation of influence as a directing 
medium, to the power employed in divers ways, rep- 
resents the essence of human intelligence. It is con- 
fined to belief whether the influence that invites action 
is justified in claiming to be the directing authority; 
or whether it is a subjective feature embraced in the 
direct revelation of the Power to act. 

The fastidious who represent a subject of material 
acquirements ,would very naturally present an array 
of literal "facts" to prove that the order of Nature had 
been reversed by human progress and the importance 
of acting right was an objective obligation in which 
the interest of the subject was strictly confined to 
obedience. The greedy point to material progress and 
turn a deaf ear to natural commonness, parading their 
egoism as evidence that material progress was iden- 
tical to material acquirements. With a parade of wis- 
dom suggestive of scholarship a person will deliver 
a flow of words with convincing smiles, that fairly as- 
tonishes an audience by his eloquent descriptions of 
structures as a result of science and intelligence in- 
herited from the pagan. Ask such a wiseacre what 
he means by science and intelligence, when he would 
be shocked at such a display of ignorance by asking 
foolish questions. To be born amid such glorious sur- 
roundings should be sufficient to impress a sense of 
obligation rather than ponder over personal thoughts 
about freedom and who to obey. What is the mean- 
ing of objective authority unless it is to obey one's 



HUMAN EQUITY 85 

surroundings without question? The trouble is ob- 
jective authority is not true while personal thoughts 
are the verity of Truth. Material reward is available 
as an attractive prospect, also an observation to main- 
tain an objective supervision over the innate 
thoughts ; the same as children can be persuaded to 
go astray by the prospects of something sweet, also 
adults can be led by prospects of gain. 

The least temporary success strengthens a belief in 
objective control over subjective reality. It is simple 
to account for poverty and disappointment when vis- 
ionary prospects can be maintained by a belief in ob- 
jective authority from the mere intoxication of the 
worship of literal authority. No other reason can be 
advanced to account for a belief in objective control, 
than an abnormal state of mind induced by expecta- 
tions of either material acquirements or adulation. 
The apparent devotion to objective worship is more 
serious because the object is termed good and from 
the word good the controlling Spirit is symbolized — -. 
God — when by the negative elasticity of beliefs it is 
made by political design to replace the natural moral 
sense, when the sincere belief in objective control 
commands the situation, to the extent of individual 
belief, however, for it is assumed that devout persons 
are sincere in what they profess to believe. It is cer- 
tainly unjust to judge a person when the presentation 
of the principle is based upon the exclusive commu- 
nion of Spirit being confined strictly to the person. 
The prompting of conscience could be considered re- 
liable or no moral fabric either literal or Spiritual 
could be maintained. It is the possibility of influence 
establishing an abnormal belief to counteract the nor- 



86 HUMAN EQUITY 

mal which the breath of life imparts to the person at 
birth that should engage the attention of every honest 
person at least. It is not necessary to condemn an ab- 
normal belief in the search for a cause, for it is no 
modern discovery that a child can be transformed both 
mentally and physically. This being granted an in- 
quiry could be anticipated to learn how it could be 
possible to counteract a direct communion of Spirit? 
Conduct is not a feature of direct communion with 
God which the experience of any person could verify 
providing he had no other interest to distract atten- 
tion. 

The loose method of reasoning in support of a be- 
lief in an external directing authority is not logical 
if impartially examined ; it is much more evident that 
internal selfishness is the directing influence, for a 
selfish person has little regard for external authority. 
It supports the principle of subjective influence to ob- 
serve how vigorously a person will contend for what 
he wants others to bestow upon him, while he would 
be extremely reticent about appropriating what be- 
longed to others. These trifling inconsistencies enter 
freely into the precepts that are often expounded with 
eloquence and pathos while practice would be so 
sadly needed by the exponent that one is constrained 
to look deeper before a belief in external influence 
could be justly held responsible for conduct so plainly 
revealed to be subjective. Truism could not be such 
if it depended upon the transitory character of belief 
and the versatility of words. Besides, if for any rea- 
son whatever, if either progress or moral conduct is 
held to depend upon objective authority over the 
primitive subjective, the modern word "truism" does 



HUMAN EQUITY 87 

not apply to that which is externally imparted to the 
internal ability to perceive. 

Words may be rehabilated to the end of time with 
regimental exactness, but no form of civil government 
will ever rest securely upon political prerogatives 
that were elaborately formulated to subjugate the 
whole people and compel them to contribute to the 
greed of man. Heresy as designated by political gov- 
ernment is rapidly disseminating by the force of 
natural progress the evidence of which is material 
progress. It can be objected to by designating such a 
sentiment as an exploded doctrine of fatalism, but it 
will never be the fate of evil conduct to be honored as 
promoting any permanent state of human progress. 
Honors obtained in life by cultivating the applaud of 
the very victims that were victimized are always bur- 
ied with the corpse. 

If indirect revelation or the specific were bestowed 
upon the human race as an atonement for evil con- 
duct by perpetuating objective authority in the inter- 
est of material greed, a trust in God would be impos- 
sible. No form of slavery that ever existed could 
compare with a complete surrender to external auth- 
ority, and material greed. 

Every person who has more faith in God than he 
has in material acquirements of any character, also 
knows that the private judgment and freedom of 
thought is personally sacred, since an obedience to 
political authority is also a duty one owes to the good 
order of society (not specific society that patronizes 
political protection, but Christian society in accord 
with the preaching of Christ). The precepts of 
Christ were in vain if political or civil authority can 



88 HUMAN EQUITY 

command the direct relation between God and man. 
Whatever external effort is made, it need not concern 
the individual, because if he respects the communion 
of Spirit as being an individual affair by reason of his 
personal liability to punishment that no civil authorty 
can prevent, it requires very little judgment to decide 
which to serve. 

Responsibility cannot justly exist with a complete 
conviction of a duty of obligation to objective author- 
ity. Two persons, which would constitute the most 
primitive form of society, would be obliged to corre- 
spond in thought to establish a relation of equity. If 
the principle of objective authority was claimed by 
either, it would result in war or slavery. Energy act- 
ing upon innate bodies would be no less blind to rea-» 
son than for one person to claim a moral authority 
over another because one could be compelled to ac- 
knowledge the other possessed a greater volume of 
energy. What-should-be, does not enter into an ar- 
gument by the mere volume of energy established by 
a previous rule determining what should be. If reason 
is destined to prevail over the mere volume of energy 
that frequently has to be decided by those who 
profess to be able to impart reason by external auth- 
ority, should first be sure they are reasonable them- 
selves. How can a person declare himself to be hon-: 
est, even tentatively, while he contended that reason 
required a private tribunal protected by a gregarious 
group, to determine just when reason was reasonable? 
Assuming that the freedom of thought was to be set- 
tled by a political tribunal whether it was reasonable 
or not, the greater question would immediately fol- 
low: Is God externally objective or internally subjec- 



HUMAN EQUITY 89 

tive? Decisions would pile up one upon another to 
cover the false renderings of previous questions. It 
would thus appear that reason was so intricate and 
conveniently elastic that the vital question : What is 
man's relation to God or Spirit? is yet afar off as it re- 
lates to person collectively but to person individually 
God is too near to evil doers to be comfortable. It 
would be one reason at least, that God revealed him- 
self to individual person direct, and with this fact ad- 
mitted no reason, for an indirect revelation can be 
shown except the political reason that has to be cov- 
ered up by new renderings for fear the individual per- 
son will discover that his relation with God was his 
own private concern as much so as the freedom of 
thought. 

There are so many cunning ways of political make- 
shifts that the credulous can readily be persuaded to 
follow to their own destruction. 

When it is admitted that the natural order of prog- 
ress resists every attempt to exercise authority over 
the positive effects, it reflects no escape for political 
iniquity as personally conducted. The mere versatil- 
ity of words never makes any impression upon the 
strict regularity of whatever is moved by Spiritual or 
natural energy. No person in a normal condition 
could deceive himself even if he was able to convince 
others, that material happiness depended upon the po- 
litical ability to guide the moral conduct of those who 
lacked the literal ability necessary to penetrate the 
ingenuity by which mere appetite and fear could be 
appealed to. 

The extravagant methods that policy is directly 
and indirectly concerned with is strictly limited to 



9<D HUMAN EQUITY 

material things. The evidence of history and individ- 
ual experience will corroborate the statement that poli- 
tics of every character not only contended against 
progress, but also insisted upon the teaching of a 
personal God objectively, and also objective authority 
over any subjective privilege such as freedom of 
thought, freedom of speech and any philosophy that 
recognized human experience as directly conceived by 
the power to think. The political supervision over 
spiritual publicity and also material progress makes it 
extremely hazardous to protest against anything over 
which the most modified form of policy can establish 
a meager following. It recognizes the principle of 
freedom as the freedom to institute a collective group. 
Even incendiary groups of a seditious character need 
only a touch with political influence to flourish in the 
name of freedom. Politics is so woven into Spiritual 
Christianity that it partakes of material reward even 
to the entire exclusion of what a Spiritual reward 
really means. The political support is confined 
strictly to interpretations of some character; however 
adverse they may be, it presents an unapproachable 
obstacle against material assault either in the form 
of words or material missiles. It is injurious to recog- 
nize popular freedom in the collective institutions. It 
is worthy of statesmanship to defend the necessity of 
politics to protect society. "Politics is therefore con- 
fined to materialism as opposed to Spiritual Power, 
because it is strictly objective while the subjective is 
in direct communion wth God or Spirit individually 
perceived and when it is individually conceived, ma- 
terialism is definitely located in its co-operation with 
politico-religion as anti-Christian as the most bril- 



HUMAN EQUITY 9 I 

liant product that the heathens ever instituted against 
the precepts of Christ, to take advantage of the credu- 
lous by the mere power to do it with even the pre- 
tense that it was for the purpose of "up-lifting" them 
from an unfortunate condition, is the very foundation 
of materialism prompted by selfish greed. 

What constitutes material progress is an effect of 
the natural incentive to progress. It does not follow 
that material acquirements are an evil in themselves, 
but the facts that such acquirements stimulate the 
natural greedy disposition apparently common to all. 
It is therefore confined to the greedy to institute a 
theory of justification applying to material progress as 
a whole. That is, that the poor should be compelled 
to be obedient to such a universal law of progress. 
The greedy can always attract the most attention be- 
cause they make the most noise, but material prog- 
ress does not depend upon noise even if noise has its 
virtue also. It is the application of noise in mislead- 
ing the credulous for the sole purpose of supporting 
the noise is when the material greedy are concerned. 
Progress derives its impetus from silent energy when 
a respect for God in no sense depends upon noise. 
Thus the relation of natural progress to material prog- 
ress is analogous of an effect trying to control the 
cause, and when it is observed that the activity of 
Nature is equally silent as the communion of Spirit, 
it presents a situation no less a fact by the absence 
of noise. It also follows if noise is so necessary to 
maintain politics — institutional authority — it is con- 
victed by its own noise that it has a silent opponent 
to deal with. It does not need proof to demonstrate 
the self-evident fact of the silent communion of Spirit. 



92 HUMAN EQUITY 

Proof is only needed to maintain a collective interest 
in temporal institutions that are strictly limited to ma- 
terialism and the equity of conduct between man and 
man. Not a fraction of authority, however, can be 
proved, or exercised over the relation between man 
and God, which represents human equity. 



HUMAN EQUITY 93 



CHAPTER XI. 

PARADOXICAL ABSURDITIES. 

IT is with a gleam of satisfaction that a critic betrays 
his egoism in pointing out the errors of others. He 
sees nothing but etymological errors in the portrayal 
of thought between one person and another suggest- 
ing that the entire end of life is to make a display of 
learning. The most humble effort of communication 
reflects a principle that the most exact rendering of 
etymology is but a shadow, for at their very best 
words are only relative to the principle of which 
thought is the positive. Words therefore add nothing 
to the Truth, but they can be used in profusion to 
hide it. 

The learned heathen gave evidence that God only 
communicated His purpose through the medium of 
learning, the influence being in proportion to exter- 
nal embellishment. The very effort of trying to main- 
tain an esoteric exclusiveness in whatever pertained 
to art reflects a purpose of denying to Nature its rela- 
tion in equity with whatever was invisible of a Spir- 
itual Power. The effort to elevate an effect above its 
cause stimulated the exercise of the intellectual facul- 
ties which gave to the very effort of secrecy the most 
effectual means by which the greater efficiency in the 
distribution of art was possible. That it was no credit 
to the early discoveries of the use of letters is the im- 



94 HUMAN EQUITY 

mediate point to consider. Thus to shake off the para- 
doxical absurdities inherited from the pagans is an 
intellectual exercise that exposes the absurdities in 
proportion to the recognizing of the simplicity of 
written language and its proper relation to the Power 
of God; from which source the invention of letters 
were not only possible, but their improved under- 
standing also. The effort to maintain an esoteric ex- 
clusion of society by the mere etymology of words, 
concerns only those who for the purpose of being in- 
tellectually blind insist upon putting out their own 
eyes. A few examples will perhaps make the princi- 
ple clearer to those, at last, who have not surrendered 
wholly to materialistic ideas ; for instance : 

The phrase, "the unwritten law" reflects an absurd- 
ity that shows the persistency of underrating the na- 
ture of things even in the attempt to acknowledge 
Spiritual supremacy. In a materialistic sense the 
word "law" is only considered in writing or speech, 
and to attribute the word to any principle unwritten 
gives the impression that Spiritual communication 
what the word "unwritten" would apply to, depends 
upon written transmission, therefore making the 
phrase absurd. To use the very unwritten Power 
that the phrase was doubtless intended to convey as 
being "unwritten" and connecting it with the word 
"law" betrays a paradoxical purpose by reason of the 
word "law" possessing a dual definition directed by 
the fiat of man. The word "law" to represent an un- 
written principle is more proof of man's effort to su- 
percede Spiritual Power, than to promote a better re- 
lation between man and man. To offer an excuse of 
maintaining the precedents by reason of maintaining 



HUMAN EQUITY 95 

a rule is extremely narrow, for if it could be success- 
fully established the unwritten Spiritual would be- 
come a negative principle and the Truth would de- 
pend upon written law to verify its truthfulness. If 
specific society depends upon a deceptive understand- 
ing that must be preserved in the interest of preserv- 
ing the society, it would appear that the plain Truth 
would at least preserve them from the effects of their 
errors. No person can suffer from unwritten Spiritual 
energy per se. There is no occasion to call attention 
by means of the invention of letters to whatever pre- 
ceded or inspired the invention. It presents a vague 
effort to explain how an effect can be cultivated until 
it appears to explain its own advent. The Power 
that is able to produce an effect, continues to effect 
things, without the things effected being in the least 
improved by being told by the aid of letters that the 
Power to effect such remarkable results was an un- 
written Power. Yet a person can become so em- 
balmed in the environments of belief, that a parent 
will teach its offspring to be thankful for the inven- 
tion of letters ; otherwise it would never have known 
God. As a matter of fact, the unwritten Power that 
the semi-power representing the effect, calls the at- 
tention of humanity to observe that only for the effect 
being able to call the unwritten Power "a law," hu- 
manity would never have known they were superior 
to animals. 

These absurdities were promulgated originally by 
pagan politics as a means of subjugating the masses 
to a strict obedience to visible authority which has 
since been recognized as "civil authority" in distinc- 
tion to Spiritual authority. This distinction was 



96 HUMAN EQUITY 

forced upon secular learning by the advent of Christ, 
the popularity of this advent becoming so strong in 
opposition to political theories of invisible principle, 
that a disintegration of the belief that political author- 
ity presided over Spiritual authority gradually at- 
tracted attention. To suddenly metamorphosize the 
entire human race into a state of perfection would be 
impossible when all the circumstances are carefully 
considered. 

To understand what Nature is, from the written 
effort to impart the information, presents a paradoxi- 
cal effort that no other similar attempt exceeds. It 
would appear that active Nature is not competent to 
act without a decision rendered by a collective tri- 
bunal protected by civil and militant authority. It is 
at least interesting to an individual who may be told 
that it would be dangerous to know more than what 
he was commanded to believe by "settle" preroga- 
tives settled before he was born. It is of recent date 
comparatively that an individual may be recognized 
to have any thoughts except whi* was imparted by a 
learned tribunal, permitted by a civil authority, to de- 
termine what was proper for a person to think or 
whether he could think at all. The immediate con- 
sideration does not effect directly the great diversity 
of human conduct and belief, so much as it does the 
object of maintaining a complexed understanding of 
the relation of words to the facts, or whether the in- 
vention of letters to symbolize human speech was for 
the specific benefit of those who could distort them, 
or for the more Christian relation of promoting an im- 
proved method of communication between man and 
man. Assuming, however, that a universal admission 



HUMAN EQUITY gj 

of a complete disintegration is possible between civil 
and Spiritual authority. As the case stands now civil 
authority contends against the admission of a direct 
communion of individual person with God, or from 
the civil view of the question of considering God as 
''unknown," the relation of subject and object effects 
the same purpose applied to civil authority as when 
the same authority could command a person to keep 
silent if he dared to acknowledge any authority su- 
perior to what the civil permitted. 

The civil authority considered from a point of secu- 
lar learning represents a visible power by which 
means its authority can be enforced. It leads to a 
belief, therefore, that whatever is visible must either 
direct the invisible Power or from what the secularly 
learned have reason to claim by virtue of their su- 
perior learning, that the unwritten Power so directs 
the civil or secular power, that so far as natural man 
is concerned he is simply consigned at birth to the 
mercy of civil authority ; and whatever such authority 
pass upon the infant or natural man such is in duty 
bound to submit. 

There is no more paradoxical absurdity that could 
be conceived than to attempt to convince a person who 
feels it to be his special duty in the interests of civil 
society, to hide what he knows to be the Truth and 
cling desperately to the ambiguity of written words 
for the reason they were embalmed by civil power to 
preserve dead men's ideas, or dead ideas, to the com- 
plete exclusion of a new one ; or if it was recognized 
to be derived from the Eternal Power it would be no 
less a new application so far as man's conduct was 
concerned. It would not advance the relation of secu- 



98 HUMAN EQUITY 

lar learning or civil authority a fraction, in its per- 
petual effort to preserve its directing influence over 
the means of communication between man and man, 
for the one single purpose of maintaining communion 
with God to the utter exclusion of the direct commu- 
nion exclusively revealed to the babe at birth. 

The civic effort to protect the precept that "God is 
the author of Nature" is extremely opposite to the 
contention between the civic and Spiritual. It does 
not concern the Christian principle in the least 
whether God was the author of Nature or whether 
Nature was the author of God, it is entirely a civic 
phrase and more useful to the skeptical believer than 
the orthodox Christian believer, for the following rea- 
son. It presents a fundamental basis to maintain a 
civic interpretation of the Scriptures in direct contra- 
diction to the Spiritual character of the Bible. In 
that light it presents a truth so paradoxically ex- 
pressed that the attention is drawn to the civic or 
secular exponent, by the paraphernalia of expression, 
in proportion to one's inability to understand what 
was meant by the phrase. 

The attachment of the infant and the credulous for 
any extravagant presentation has a world reputation 
for effectiveness. Besides, when it is possible for 
civic ingenuity to offer such material attraction that 
it is possible for a subject to feel learned when he be- 
comes filled with dead ideas, it would be more than 
idle to undertake to put "new wine" into such recep- 
tacles. New ideas will never suffer, however, for the 
natural man is vastly more numerous than he who is 
overflowing with dead ideas. 

Great principles develop much slower than little 
ones, but no honest person could justly hold to an in- 



HUMAN EQUITY 99 

difference to whether the civic or the Spiritual was 
served, so long as the natural could be depended upon 
for adjusting whatever error of judgment the civic 
authority might commit. It is only a blind man or 
one dead to any perception of personal responsibility 
to Nature, that could fail to recognize in the natural 
adjustment of things that evil doers are not only pun- 
ished visibly but must also suffer more in addition by 
the invisible punishment, that no civic authority has 
any power to prevent. How a person can be so crip- 
pled in understanding is the very point by which civic 
authority is able to make it appear that a collective 
body has the same influence over invisible affairs as it 
does over the visible With the secular learned 
prompted by pagan prerogatives, they are able to con- 
trol civic authority, by which means they control the 
symbols relating to Spiritual thought. The effect is 
the same whether a person has a sincere belief or not 
in the conduct he pursues. For this reason the science 
of etymology is the key to the situation and paganism 
can be taught in "Christian Sunday schools" with 
impunity. Thousands of examples could be cited as 
examples of the misuse of words according to pagan 
rendering for the sole purpose of denying the most 
essential feature of Christianity, which is its individual 
character of strict personal liberty with the recorded 
evidence that Christianity pertains to the Spiritual 
exclusively. Thus whatever influence civil authority 
claims to have over Christianity it is no less than the 
usurpation of a common Power bestowed upon the 
entire race. Secular learning is as powerless to effect 
any influence over this universal Power, which means 
no less than human knowledge than anyone trying to 
defend the principle for personal gain, can escape ade- 



IOO HUMAN EQUITY 

quate punishment. It is wholly derived from a pagan 
rendering of letters that concrete Power is rent into 
abstracts to first cripple natural perception that the 
persons so crippled can the more readily be subju- 
gated. 

God does not direct the effect of His Power after 
bestowing the privilege of directing one's movement 
according to the individual will, since it would be ab- 
surd. A person will believe anything from one in 
whom confidence is established. It is the rule rather 
than the exception that a negative belief will supplant 
a positive truth; for that reason a judgment of the 
conduct of others should in kindness be reserved. 
The thorough conviction that a symbolized truth is 
equivalent to a Spiritual truth is practically an em- 
balmed condition that a person is no more respon- 
sible for than the date of his birth. A betrayal of con- 
fidence or an adverse experience will enlighten a per- 
son more in one minute than a volume of symbolized 
precepts seeking in vain to impart Spiritual effect by 
transmission. The learned skeptic and the ultra secu- 
lar scholar are more than a match for theologians in 
the art of symbolizing. None but a peer can enter 
this arena of contention, and to a person not initiated 
in the art of letters, or the art of symbolizing, the con- 
test would be as unintelligible as Greek to a dog. 
Neither parties to the contest on general principles 
will yield to any disarmament of pagan prerogatives. 
Thus both parties on general principle are anti-Chris- 
tian as collective bodies, allowing that many individ- 
ual associates are exceptions. This strong hold sup- 
ported by civil authority leaves Christianity a clear 
field to promulgate its Spiritual supremacy on the 
natural lines of its primitive beginning. 



HUMAN EQUITY IOI 

The foregoing premise will show how important it 
was for the political pagan to maintain a subservient 
position for Nature or whatever was common and 
not immediately visible. It was simple for the pagans 
to make gods and symbols — words — to prove any de- 
sired end. It is vastly different, however, at the pres- 
ent time when even the learned must believe in either 
one God or none at all. A dual Nature, a dual energy, 
and dual symbols for the convenience of maintaining 
dominating authority, as applied to ethical instruction, 
is absurd; as a principle, immoral; as an act, as anti- 
Christian as a disrespect for Spiritual Power, since 
which the slightest effect or movement would be im- 
possible. Man, however, in his greed for embellish- 
ment and epicurean appetite is confined to conduct. 
The Power to effect such a state does not in any sense 
direct a course of which a normal will is individually 
responsible. If fear, love, pain, and a moral sense of 
duty, were not enough to caution the conduct that the 
privilege of will revealed, what man ever imparted 
more to another? 

Hence in reverence and respect for every thing that 
moves, by what authority did man symbolize objects 
with their movements and qualities, when the very 
conduct that performed the act depended upon the 
invisible Power that is revealed to the sense of touch? 
To deny that this Power is any less the Truth than 
develops a flower, than that which effects the human 
will by which means Nature was classified and also 
degraded to form a base by which a policy of material 
greed could be maintained theoretically above its sup- 
porting base ; to hide the duplicity of conduct, the 
effect of the Power that stirs a leaf. 



102 HUMAN EQUITY 



CHAPTER XII. 

DEFINITE ABSURDITIES. 

IT would appear unaccountable that culture and 
learning could develop conduct from which even 
the uncultured are appealed to for protection. There 
is a reason for this state of affairs, when, as culture 
becomes more generally distributed, it is gradually- 
dawning upon the human race that the natural is rec- 
ognized as a more moral state than that which is bur- 
dened with superficial or artificial acquirements. 

As long as this un-Christian state of things is main- 
tained in defiance of the Spiritual and natural Power, 
for the purpose of maintaining a mere theory of po- 
litical supremacy, the defenders of such definite ab- 
surdities will be powerless to protect themselves 
from their own folly. The people of ordinary under- 
standing cannot be continually told that they are ob- 
ligated for the privilege to think to the very persons 
that are constantly demanding more service and grati- 
tude for being taught a prospective belief that mere 
precepts will support the desire for luxuries and un- 
earned increments. There is no better evidence that 
"too much learning can make a person mad" than the 
frenzied ideas by which everybody could be elevated 
above the base of drudgery. A person can scarcely 
be an example of free thinking who is strictly con- 
fined to only such thoughts as were imparted to him. 



HUMAN EQUITY IO3 

It is not a question of the quality of the thoughts; 
the misfortune is, they are confined to a feeling of ob- 
ligation to some external influences which practi- 
cally establishes such a condition of dependence upon 
some patron that objective support is considered at 
fault, if it failed to recognize a negative principle with 
not a single positive feature about it. The policy of 
maintaining a material advantage in the struggle for 
existence, presents an attraction that makes it more 
difficult for cultured than the uncultured to contend 
against evil. 

It belies the intrinsic principle of virtue to present 
an issue of contention against the individual commu- 
nion of Spirit exclusive of objective influence. It 
would be absurd to exchange a positive knowledge of 
God for a belief imparted objectively. It presents a 
policy of human conduct since learning is an effect 
of the Power that moves everything; it is no wise at 
fault, for learning can be misdiretced by human policy 
in opposition to a moral purpose. It thus appeals to 
a trust in man that his practice will not warrant. It 
is no reflection upon the Spiritual character of the 
Scriptures to repudiate any political interpretation of 
them, when the same privilege is not denied to the 
most abject person living. There is certainly no 
feature of the Bible that justifies the taking an ad- 
vantage of an unlearned and defenceless creature. 
Therefore for a single individual or a nation to insist 
upon the necessity of transmitting what is individually 
a virtue directly revealed, is at least an inconsistency 
that only a policy of some character could maintain 
the negative of such a positive Truth. No better 
proof of the inspiration of the Scriptures was ever 



104 HUMAN EQUITY 

offered by any collective gathering to sustain a specific 
doctrine, than the one single fact of recognizing a 
direct individual revelation with God. 

The difference between what is acquired by a per- 
son and what is revealed is not settled by a mere de- 
claration of definition applied to the words "revealed" 
and "acquired" when it is recognized as a principle 
of study that the word "revealed" relates strictly to 
a subjective state, the relation between man and God 
could be verified by one's own experience ; whatever 
obligation a person might be committed to, it need 
not detract from a confirmed belief to examine a 
proposition subjectively, even when the most egotis- 
tic deterimnation was to reject an}^thing negative to 
the belief confirmed. It could be treated speculatively 
even with a prejudiced conclusion, yet it would be as 
definitely absurd to reject a proposition that rested 
upon the ambiguity of words as unconfirmed as the 
privilege to reject the proposition entirely. That is, 
a confirmed belief of any character would be absurd, 
if a disbelief was impossible ; it would be analogous 
to the absurdity of a declaration of freedom, if slav- 
ery had been or is imposible. The identical Power 
that effects a belief is equally a necessity to effect a 
disbelief, for that reason responsibility and authority 
for individual conduct is strictly subjective and the 
persistent effort of man to impart or transmit what- 
ever is strictly subjective as revelation identical to 
birth or experience, is not only impossible, but defin- 
itely absurd. 

The importance of what the word "revelation" re- 
lates to is no less important than the Truth or the 
direct Power of God. In the first place revelation is 



HUMAN EQUITY IO5 

not imparted as declared by the ambiguity of words. 
Revelation is Spiritual and invisible while literal words 
are neither; for that reason no method has yet been 
invented to transmit or record Spiritual revelation. It 
is not a negative principle for nothing can exist with- 
out it. A "Personal God" is just as pertinent to "be- 
lief" as to a Positive Truth, it is the ambiguity of 
words maintained by political astuteness, often the 
fiat of an individual person, that detracts and also 
distracts the attention from Spiritual revelation, by 
the objective presentation of material effects. It 
would be a contradiction of the first principle of poli- 
tics, to reveal its own secrets and convict itself of 
being a mere figure of evil temptation, that is often 
represented by a personal term in contradiction to a 
subjective personality, by which means an objective 
personally is supported from a mere figure of speech 
that not only takes advantage of the invisible protec- 
tion of the otherwise defenceless, to keep the "pitfalls" 
of material attractions in continuous activity. Poli- 
tical astuteness will fall into its own pit before it con- 
trols the direct Spiritual method of revealing know- 
ledge, and substitutes therefore objective acquire- 
ments to distract the attention by means of a visible 
belief being held up like heathen idols to promote a 
relative visible object above the invisible. From the 
political and material standpoint it s smple to ask for 
a materal description of a Spirit. It is from this fact 
that the skeptic and secular scholars are zealous in 
maintaining an objecttive spirit of a dual character, one 
the director of good, the other the director of evil. To 
consign this belief to a figure of speech derived from 
pagan prerogatives is the proper place for it, but it 



106 HUMAN EQUITY 

is also no less the privilege of the materialist or 
"higher criticism" to pronounce it absurd than for 
objective criticism to observe how familiar the ma- 
terialist is with absurdities, suggesting from a 
standpoint of Spiritual revelation that real absurdities 
are as dependent upon experience as a person is upon 
birth before he could even conduct a successful ab- 
surdity. It is unbecoming to conduct a serious argu- 
ment upon lines of sarcasm but when an egotistic 
person is worthy of notice in view of a numerous 
following he may attract, it is only by the same in- 
struments he employs that he can be persuaded to 
recognize his own folly since the object is but a mir- 
ror to a subjective thought. 

A very common precept is often advanced as a 
truism — "help each other" — as such, it is not objec- 
tionable. It may be absurd, however, when the equity 
of exchanging such assistance is first made necessary 
by the preceptor's influence, to which might be ob- 
served an assumption of superiority that dictated the 
character of service, also what was to be rendered in 
return. It is this feature of any precept that in strict 
logic denies the equity of humanity, by reflection, that 
the relation between man and man is equally as 
definite as the direct revelation of some invisible 
Power which every person knows who can speak, 
feel, and direct his own movements. If an objective 
preceptor can assert that a person can only acquire 
the freedom of thought by political direction, such a 
person is a pretender, at the option of any subject 
who in equity is at liberty to discard Spiritual Truth 
for political belief. No evidence of personal liberty is 
more potent than the possibility of voluntary servi- 
tude. 



HUMAN EQUITY \OJ 

The relation therefore of the ambiguity of mere 
words to Spiritual facts presents a reason for evil 
conduct, that illiteracy or the most abject ignorance 
is not responsible. It could be objected to by virtue 
of the privilege of free thought and free disposition 
of person, that it was more conducive to happiness 
and convenience to submit to acquired knowledge 
(so termed) than acknowledge that which cost noth- 
ing — direct revelation. 

Courage is a contiguous entailment to freedom and 
man's conduct in relation to each other is a visible 
proof that he can act wrong, and also by the same 
test he could, by the exercise of the same energy, have 
acted right. The directing influence of attractions in 
thousands of varieties, are in reality the only method 
by which courage can be cultivated. The first excuse 
a person will make after committing an evil act, is to 
charge the offence to his environments. He is sus- 
tained in this charge by the political effort to sustain 
the ambiguity of words to attribute subjective acts 
to objective influence, making an addition to material 
attraction by persecuting courage, as an egotistic 
absurdity while the illusion of acquirements is ob- 
jectively paraded as a virtue in comparison with 
natural revelation, which is ridiculed by vanity and 
eagerly grasped by the coward. 

As a general principle, however, in seeking to main- 
tain a natural virtue by an artificial construction of 
the literal means of communication, could be dis- 
covered to be absurd, when the same test is applied 
to the preceptor who would eulogize personal acquire- 
ments and reflect pointedly to the poor as evidence of 
evil. If acquirements, including public adulation, are 



108 HUMAN EQUITY 

the reward for personal conduct, morality is conspi- 
cuous by its absence since it is a necessary sentiment 
to strenuously contend that a revelation is diffused 
by the imparting influence of some object over a sub- 
ject. This sentiment would not be defended as a 
virtue that could only be maintained by the distortion 
of words to exclude the illiterate from a communion 
with God except what was imparted to such. No 
person can act sufficiently mysterious to attract fol- 
lowers as a mere accident, therefore words could not 
be distorted in the absence of a knowledge of letters. 
Whether this distortion is for a good or evil purpose, 
the distortion as such could not be classed a virtue, 
when the purpose is becoming more prominent as 
every new day succeeds the old. This distortion of 
words is maintained by some standard authority on 
the same ground that weights and measures are ; to 
protect the so-called intellectual laborer from the 
abuse of short weight or short measure, in dealing 
with the tillers of the soil, or any so-called physical 
laborers, political authority is extremely exact. In 
the matter of distorting words, the same authority 
is quite indifferent to a strict exactness, which re- 
flects man's indifference toward whom he chooses to 
classify as inferiors. The elasticity of words to dis- 
guise their relative character give them the appear- 
ance of sustaining the science of dissembling to main- 
tain an obligation of subjective to objective authority. 
To impart or to develop can be embraced in one 
purpose, or as occasion might require the same terms 
could be employed in opposition to each other. By 
giving to the word "object" a superlative significance, 
such words as God, Spirit revelation, develop, impart 



HUMAN EQUITY IO9 

an objective relation to man as the subject, it would 
appear by the esoteric tribunal that man could not 
know God except by its being imparted by one who 
from reasons of man's significant fiat that the word 
"object" signified a superlative state. Scientific 
grammar would not permit of the distortion of words 
but the common grammar in its exoteric character 
must be sufficiently elastic to maintain the superlative 
significance of the word "object," for the fiercest wars 
of the world have been fought to maintain the exo- 
teric significance of this simple word "object" for the 
reason equally as simple that the people at large must 
not be permitted to understand that revelation can 
be obtained by any other method than its being im- 
parted objectively or externally. To prove that "re- 
velation" is subjective instead of objective would be 
as absurd as to prove a superlative Truth or the pos- 
sibility of super perfecton, or for a preceptor to prove 
he could impart virtue. In fact thousands of in- 
stances could be cited, and as many quotations 
to show that every negative attempt is absurd 
to prove that the Truth is more or less than a posi- 
tive entity neither subjective or objective. The 
Truth is too powerful to require support from its de- 
pendencies, it demands recognition, in lieu of which 
the penalty is as positive as the Truth itself. All 
this distortion of relative symbols is no secret to the 
esoteric tribunal, for they try to believe they have 
enjoyed (?) this objective situation so long that an 
individual exposure is equivalent to being branded a 
traitor. It is the influence of fear and material at- 
tractions that restrain men from admitting what they 
know to be true. 



HO HUMAN EQUITY 

Revelation is not an acquirement for the reason 
nothing could be acquired intellectually prior to revel- 
ation. Whatever pertains to God is no less than birth, 
revelation, experience, virtue, knowledge, in fact the 
Power of God planted within from the invisible seed 
that acquires nothing more of a Spiritual character. 
Material growth is the limit. "Knowledge" and all 
the many words that man has constructed to symbolize 
Spiritual entity are all abstracts deducted from this 
principle for a multitude of reasons. Not a fraction 
of knowledge or virtue can be acquired because 
knowledge is the very entity of Person — God — signi- 
fying the entire human race as One Person, human 
equity on the Spiritual side — the erroneous subjective 
side — for the reason that the sentiment depends upon 
the distortion of words to give a relative truth, or a 
pagan god, the appearance of Truth ; an entity that 
was never imparted to the seed, because it develops 
and reveals itself possessing the wonderful Power of 
acquiring material growth. 

On the material side of a common existence is em- 
braced whatever pertains to material things. When 
it is strictly recognized as a truism, the principle in- 
cludes conduct, the folly of distorting words, the ab- 
surdity of imparting knowledge, which is the Power 
to learn rather than what is learned. Politics, moral 
suasion, science, art, philosophy, technics, in fact any- 
thing can be taught with profit that does not infringe 
upon the common equity of Spiritual revelation, be- 
cause the gulf between the Spiritual and the material 
will not permit of a material bridge. To the babe, 
however, previous to any material influence the gulf 
is not impassable. In reality it is safe to claim that 



HUMAN EQUITY I I I 

the infant period of human existence is the only period 
that the individual is explicitly obedient to God, for 
the reason that no skeptical delusions are directly 
revealed. It is only after the babe looks around a 
little that he begins to exploit his surroundings, and 
naturally feels as if he had just arrived in paradise, 
rather than just departed from there. It presents a 
situation that refutes any skeptical sentiment of an 
"unknown God" or an "impassable gulf" for while a 
back entrance to Heaven is being investigated, the 
front door is wide open. 



112 HUMAN EQUITY 



CHAPTER XIII. 

ILLUSIVE QUALITY. 

THE fact that the word "quality" was tabulated in- 
dicates a purpose, or reason for maintaining a 
symbol which has become a part of language. There is 
no word more competent to allure the fancy of the 
brain and give things an appearance of something 
which are also defined as nothing, reflects the purpose 
of the word in much clearer light than what particu- 
lar thing, or state of things it relates to. It is further 
obvious that it belongs to the catagory of illusive 
words. It illustrates the imperfection of man's con- 
duct by reason of the expressive effect of design- 
ing one thing "quality" which implies that others 
ting one thing "quality" which implies that others 
have not such a destinguishing condition. Permit- 
ting that the English language could be perfected to 
the extent that one might believe it possible to utter 
perfectly while the person was in a state of imperfec- 
tion ; such an impression would reflect ability suffi- 
cient to observe that the language could at least be 
improved by dropping illusive words altogether. 

If an invisible "thing" can be conceived tentatively 
in thought, it presents another feature of human un- 
derstanding to give sufficient visibility to the same 
thought, by which means it could be transmitted to 
another person. When words therefore are used for 



HUMAN EQUITY I I 3 

another purpose than to portray thoughts, the 
"quality" of words have a portent significance as op- 
posite, as darkness is to light, compared to the sim- 
plicity of the "Word of God." Because it is possible 
for people to allure each other by illusive signs there 
is no moral relations to any quality that could be 
justly compared to the virtue of Nature. 

One may become ascetic in moral exactness to that 
extent that the rule would seem to apply to literal 
words. Like a child even, a person in mature years 
could be readily misled by the flexibility of mere 
words. That this was the purpose that suggested the 
word "quality" is made more evident from the fact 
that it was one of the numerous words manufactured 
by the pagan Aristotle to make the conclusions of his 
syllogisms compare successfully with the premise. 
He being the highest critic at that period, he has been 
eulogized to even a greater extent than the simple 
propositions of Christ that did not rest upon any such 
word as "quality" to apologize for human conduct. 
Since natural desires can readily be cultivated to a 
condition of greed, whatever can wear the label of 
"quality" becomes an object of attraction that nothing 
but the grace of God can restore again to a normal 
condition. 

The continual use of the word quality demonstrates 
the force of habit. Besides it shows that the best in- 
tentions are not always a sufficient reason for an act 
that points directly to the individual responsibility 
regardless of objective criticism, whether it is silently 
observed or publicly expressed That illusive words 
of which there are many, should be cast aside rather 
than be used to clog the plastic brain of youth should 



1 14 HUMAN EQUITY 

engage the attention of "new movements" and "higher 
criticism" for when the cause of social disorders is 
fully recognized the remedy will become less difficult. 
No respect for the past will compare with a duty 
toward the present. It is not only absurd but ridicu- 
lous to undertake to encompass all the folly of the 
past as the only means of improving the present. To 
recognize internal development as an absolute effect 
of direct revelation would not in any sense detract 
from the freedom of conduct in dealing with material 
things. That is, whatever quality can be discovered 
in material as it naturally exists, or effected by ar- 
tificial formation, it is no less real or unreal by the 
application of a symbol that calls for more attention 
than the substance that passively waits to have its 
comparative standing with other substances properly 
classified. The quality of sugar is verified by the 
taste, also that of salt; the quality of fire was discov- 
ered by coming in contact with it, but no method has 
yet been discovered to determine the quality of a man. 
Written authorities upon the definition of the word 
quality are so diverse that the real quality of a man is 
still a questionable proposition. Some prominent auth- 
orities declare that a man of "good report" is qualified, 
also that reputation is a qualifying distinction that 
should be universally recognized. Again the quality 
of man is his ability to attract followers. To know 
when to keep silent or when to speak is a quality, 
approaching a virtue. A severe test of all these con- 
ditions have culminated in one conclusion that man 
is not perfect, in fact an extremely uncertain proposi- 
tion. Still this conclusion is entailed with doubt, for 
some appear to be satisfied to qualify their conduct 



HUMAN EQUITY II5 

by general conviction that man is naturally imper- 
fect and if he fails to wear the qualities that are ob- 
jectively imparted to him, the "poor soul" should be 
tolerated because he lacked the ability to keep his 
imperfections from becoming observed. 

Whether man's advent on earth or the various 
qualities which are imparted to him, or whether the 
word quality can be properly defined or not, both 
circumstances present no feature of an illusion, for 
they are visible realities, even if man is too imperfect 
to be trusted with his own conduct, and the standard 
authorities are contending with each other to deter- 
mine what particular feature of man is to be recog- 
nized as a quality With all the objective reasons why 
man in a proper manner, there is no visible effect that 
does not inspire a search for a cause. It is a remark- 
able observe that the people at large are more willing 
to remain than depart regardless of all the vicissitudes 
of existence. There is some purpose in this signifi- 
cant willingness to remain on earth, for no one can 
show definitely that he is compelled to stay; one does 
not have to is equally as real as the fact that his ad- 
vent was a direct revelation to himself. 

The purpose of the common use of the word quality 
is not illusive. It certainly effects a purpose of reality 
if it does not properly symbolize reality in its posi- 
tive sense. An entity could not be a "thing of real ex- 
istence," or an "essence" even in thought if quality 
could be implied or imparted to it. It would be equi- 
valent to qualifying positive terms such as Truth, 
God, Knowledge, Virtue, etc., surely these principles 
are above any necessity of qualifications, or they 
would be equally as illusive as the conduct of man in 



Il6 HUMAN EQUITY 

his persistent purpose of establishing rules to per- 
petuate a dominant authority between man and man, 
to neutralize, if not with a reasonable expectation to 
supersede the invisible authority of God not effected 
a fraction by the conduct of man. In fact it is super- 
fluous to use any term signifying or suggestive of 
God's imparting abstract energy to concrete energy. 
The term "concrete" in its material connection is 
qualified by man's authority. But who is authorized 
to qualify a positive Power whether it is symbolized a 
Spiritual Power or material energy? There is no 
other method of understanding except by comparing 
one thing with another. In the qualification of one 
thing in comparison with another, it must be materi- 
alistic or it could not be a comparable ''thing ;" under- 
standing is the principle involved rather than quali- 
ties, modes, or formulas, which are merely instrumen- 
tal in effecting the end in view. Energy is a positive 
entity that no art of man can effect ; it may be a poli- 
tical convenience to assume that God is objective to 
subjective energy, it is not so important as the fact 
that the conduct of man as an "agent" even, has not 
showed any remarkable qualities of obedience in being 
intrusted with such an important agency. Besides, if 
God is a personality objective to man as a personality 
in accord with the most ideal conception of the mis- 
sion of Christ with the distinct "promises" that it in- 
volves, the promises are sufficient to indicate from an 
objective point of view that He continues to direct 
Spiritual affairs in order that He can fulfill his pro- 
mises as transmitted by incarnate flesh. From a poli- 
tical and material point of view, man as an agent as- 
suming to be qualified to a distinction of privilege 



HUMAN EQUITY H7 

to break the laws that he can legislatively compel 
others to obey, is neither Christlike or godly. Thus, 
whatever relation God bears to man He does not trust 
His agents with full confidence, but continues to ex- 
emplify the importance of a "lawmaker" obeying his 
own laws. Even the illusive effort of qualifying 
things to the extent of interpreting the Scriptures 
would not be sufficient evidence to divert a direct trust 
in God, when it is so evident that the Agency com- 
posed of men has no visible revelation that is self re- 
vealing. This is heresy from a political point of view, 
besides one can believe or disbelieve according to 
direct revelation, for the revelation is confined to the 
energy to act, leaving the directing feature to organic 
consciousness whether to believe or disbelieve. If 
the directing influence is objective, or imparted by 
either divine authority or civil authority, the respon- 
sibility in reason would rest with the irresistible auth- 
ority, when believing or disbelieving would be an end 
having no possible means of escape. From the Spirit- 
ual standpoint of direct revelation to a human seed in 
possession of all the attributes of qualification that 
is possible, the importance of the revelation is re- 
markable, if no more than sufficient heat or energy to 
develop the seed. The quality of the seed from which 
its future development invariably depends, is the illu- 
sive point of observation, for it is no less remarkable 
by reason of its being a fact, that the quality of seed 
does not always develop into good conduct which 
can be inferred, that its outer environments were more 
concerned in imparting evil conduct than developing 
the reality which direct revelation makes possible. 
When the silent touch of Spirit recalls to the indi- 



Il8 HUMAN EQUITY 

vidual mind that he is responsible for his own conduct, 
the illusive quality of material things will become 
more visible. It is not so much the observations of 
objective influences as it is to recognize the conceptive 
ability within to shake off what in reality is material 
attraction from the nature of things constantly con- 
tending against the Spiritual reality, since no qualify- 
ing illusion of man objectively has the least effect. 

The reason this is "heresy" from a political view is 
because material attractions will as a general princi* 
pie defend such attractions. It is made apparent to 
children and the credulous, that material things are 
only to be obtained by a strict obedience to rules and 
qualification, which are the creatures of man to main- 
tain a qualification of conduct to promote a servile 
obedience conducive of material or commercial pros- 
perity. It can be readily seen that any defiance or ex- 
posure that detracts from service relation with God is 
heresy either from a doctrinal or political view, it be- 
ing contrary to dominant interests. It is no less a 
fact, however, that the choice between serving man or 
serving God demonstrates the individuality of the 
situation, even if the person so acting has no compre- 
hension of what external influence means. 

Human equity is a universal concern; because it is 
not a visible fact, it does not justify one man or any 
collective organization of men to declare by their 
own fiat a qualifying distinction of what constitutes a 
privilege of moral authority. That is, to qualify one 
man with the inference even that it disqualifies an- 
other. A sentimental abstract or personal sarcasm is 
too narrow to justify any excuse of social necessity or 
militant strength, when the question is so general as 



HUMAN EQUITY II9 

to include entire humanity in its relation to conduct 
between man and man in comparison with the indi- 
vidual relation to God or the Power that conduct 
even depends upon. 

Again, because defenceless man can be subjugated 
by material greed which presents a sentimental neces- 
sity to promote human progress, it is extremely illu- 
sive since the moral conduct of man is equally a 
necessity when the moral feature must be eliminated 
before it can be justly held that it is necessary to dis- 
tort words and give them illusive meanings to illu- 
minate material attractions for fear the natural desire 
will not respond to natural attention; suggesting an 
inference that natural development was too slow. 

A feature of illusive quality is no less important in 
its relation to Spiritual Power or invisible energy; in 
fact it might be considered to take precedent over any 
other feature for the reason that evil conduct relating 
to material things would be less hazardous, because 
it relates more directly to obligations to the Power 
itself for the wonderful revelation of the freedom of 
thought. Objective influences insist upon qualifying 
Power by giving it two symbols embraced in one — 
"metaphyscs." The world is indebted to the same 
pagan that coined the word "quality." It delighted 
Aristotle and forms the base of skepticism and also 
for the ascetic religionist. The most prominent fea- 
ture of the word "metaphysics" is not because it is 
anti-Christian, but because it is not true, in the sense 
it is illusive and conveys a false impression in appar- 
ent justification of object over subject and matter 
over mind. 

That two things cannot occupy the same space is a 



120 HUMAN EQUITY 

visibly conclusive fact. Also two Powers of different 
qualities utterly invisible could only be determined by 
conception or experience ; by which means only Power 
or energy can be revealed. That is, whatever is re- 
vealed by the Power of God does not depend upon ob- 
jective information to convey to consciousness that 
revelation was not complete in itself, of which fact 
the term "experience" is significant. To prove that 
such terms as "mental power" and "physical energy" 
relate to a qualification of distinction, the principle of 
experience would have to be denied. Experience is 
a positive proof of personal communion with Spirit, 
that exposes the effort to maintain two forces that 
any individual experience knows to be false. Knowl- 
edge is experience from which all learning is derived, 
and before learning is ever able to impart knowledge 
objectively to a subject, water will run up hill, and 
lose its Power to return. 



HUMAN EQUITY 121 



CHAPTER XIV. 

INTRINSIC PRINCIPLES. 

THE fact that virtue is the intrinsic feature of what- 
ever constitutes the base of any important struc- 
ture, consigns all skepticism, doctrines, and "higher 
critics" to the category of negative efforts. Tautology 
is warrantable in legal phraseology when it is consid- 
ered necessary to hold the attention to a definite point. 
It is no less a privilege to expose the duplicity of the 
continual use of words to impress upon the credulous 
mind that Knowledge and virtue are objectively im- 
parted for the sole purpose of obstructing the intrinsic 
principle of knowledge as revealed to an infant, to mis- 
lead it by the attraction of greed when its confidence 
is more often betrayed than any assistance is rendered. 
If the continual repetition of the effort to impart 
Knowledge is permissible it is equally so to expose 
the false position. That is, the same means that are 
employed to impart a policy of material gain as an 
excuse for the distortion of words, any objectionable 
feature of tautology could be avoided by the privilege 
of conduct, that would not make repetition so offen- 
sive when the method was employed in defense of an 
intrinsic principle revealed to the entire human race. 

What constitutes an intrinsic principle is that which 
cannot be changed by the force of circumstances at 
the convenience of policy. The word "entity" to con- 



122 HUMAN EQUITY 

vey an absolute meaning to the principle it signifies 
cannot be distorted for a policy of convenience. In 
comparison when a policy of hiding a motive is de- 
sired for a special purpose, it is convenient to give 
the word knowledge, both a positive and negative 
meaning. Technically it would be called subjective 
or objective at the convenience of the person using 
the term. An esoteric scholar would not be held to 
such a rule for the reason that such a person would 
know it was false to give a single principle or an ob- 
ject a name with two meanings, the one contradicting 
the other. To anyone that cannot readily see the mo- 
tive it would be of such slight consequence as not to 
attract any attention at all. Also when a person be- 
comes trained to a state of objective obedience it is a 
safe rule to claim that he will think just what he is 
told to think. The only exception would be when 
some severe experience might occur that would re- 
veal the Truth, when it would be a clear conception 
of a betrayal of confidence. It is not the immediate 
purpose of considering for, or against any circum- 
stance that would warrant such a false representa- 
tion. The best interest of the victim could be ad- 
vanced, for disguising such a false statement which 
must be known by any person defending the principle, 
or the opposite state of things would be the alterna- 
tive — that he had so thoroughly surrendered his own 
ability to construct original thoughts that even the 
word original would be too vague to be investigated. 

It is only the negative of an intrinsic principle that 
is possible to be investigated, for like a conceived 
Truth, which could not be true if not intrinsic, it needs 
no investigation as a means of support, for it simply 



HUMAN EQUITY I 23 

demands recognition by reason of its intrinsic char- 
acter. 

To make no mistake when words can be readily dis- 
torted, the word "intrinsic" would be absurd if ap- 
plied to any condition that could be changed by the 
policy of man. An act may be free from any inten- 
tion of doing harm to another. Besides it could be 
insisted upon that the person performing an act of in- 
tentional harm would be justified by reason of the 
good intentions, regarding the result. A good reputa- 
tion is frequently considered sentimentally as a jus- 
tification for an act that would be severely condemned 
if committed by a person of ill repute. It is this effort 
to maintain a system analogous to the caste system 
of India that defies any intrinsic principle to prevent 
it. It simply justifies any method to hold the defence- 
less person in a state of obedience. Even the learned 
and cultured give evidence of sincerity after being 
convinced that knowledge is imparted from the su- 
perior to the inferior. Nothing but a positive convic- 
tion derived from experience will convince a person 
of this error. The person who brandishes his learn- 
ing in constrained forbearance, yet the gleam of his 
sword strikes terror into the minds of children, and 
all who can be frightened into subjection. It ap- 
pears to be "settled" in the minds of people who have 
the ability to keep themselves prominent before the 
public that organized effort can control individual ex- 
perience. 

It only needs the distortion of a few words to ridi- 
cule experience. It is disposed of at once by a person 
"settled" in his own conceit. When experience is con- 
signed to the doctrine of empiricism, it appears to be 



124 HUMAN EQUITY 

annihilated. But the most serious condition that 
every organized system has to contend with since 
primitive man recorded his conduct by cutting notches 
in trees, is the Spiritual fact that experience is not a 
doctrine imparted by the most brilliant twisting of 
words. It is the revealed Truth no less than the in- 
trinsic principle of knowledge of which thousands of 
martyrs have borne witness. To dispute it is possible, 
but to deny the personal conception of experience is 
impossible. It is therefore a great convenience to 
tabulate the word "experience" with a doctrine or 
some obsolete school of philosophy governed by Aris- 
totelian rules. 

The word "conceptualism" bears witness that eso- 
teric compilation of words were carefully scraped to- 
gether to refute the teaching by Socrates that Truth, 
Virtue, and Knowledge were private conceptions of 
the inner man, intrinsic principles that could not be 
imparted by one man to another. It seemed to be a 
victory for political authority when Socrates was con- 
demned to death, but if it had not been an intrinsic 
principle, what other reason could have been enter- 
tained when it was admitted that Socrates had a 
great heart, and only guilty of publicly recognizing 
the right of private judgment, which would necessar- 
ily include the lowest slave. If the mere sentiment 
of one inoffensive man could so frighten the Greek 
political authorities, no other reason could be as- 
signed for the act than the fact that the sentiment 
was true, otherwise they would have had nothing to 
fear. 

Because this principle represents the direct com- 
munion of individual person with God, it not only re- 



HUMAN EQUITY I 25 

bukes any theory that experience can be superceded 
by any other principle, but it is a positive demand 
upon the private judgment of individual person, the 
latter principle being equally as sacred as the other. 

Negative forces contending with each other in col- 
lective groups may continue at their own convenience 
in political or militant warfare, it does not in the least 
effect intrinsic principles. Such principles can always 
wait until the fighting is over ; there always have been 
obscure creatures, or even obscure races enough to 
set up a new institution on an improved plan. 

Innumerable formulas of government can be ideally 
presented that would give promise of correcting all 
the visible evils that society is burdened with, yet 
while a recognition of the Spiritual equity of the hu- 
man race is denied, all negative efforts are remark- 
able for destroying each other. Government is a 
principle that implies a unity of action compelling the 
people constituting such a government to act in social 
harmony. Such principles as the divine rights of 
Kings and Church and State are untenable from their 
own inability to protect the principles. They have 
demonstrated a principle that divine authority is not 
responsible for the conduct of man; the most import- 
ant feature that the principle of experience has to rec- 
ommend its intrinsic character. Government in its 
primitive form presents no specific form ; it was al- 
ways derived from the voluntary willingness of sub- 
mission, for the purpose of united action as a means 
of protection against dangers of greater magnitude. 
The abuse of authority in any collective institution re- 
flects individual conduct in seeking to obtain a ma- 
terial advantage over each other, which is corrected 



126 HUMAN EQUITY 

by direct revelation; it may be termed conception or 
experience, the principal feature is, that it is direct 
and individual. This same experence develops into 
an observation that all efforts to impart instruction 
are connected with servile obedience to a greater or 
less extent. It is so completely opposite to the intrin- 
sic principle of experience derived from direct revela- 
tion that the policy of distorting words is the modern 
dress of materialism, skepticism, ascetic religion, and 
"higher criticism" consorting together to prevent a 
general recognition of the simple Truth that Christ 
was sent to deliver to the world. No more or less than 
the fact that experience is an unteachable principle for 
the reason again, that it is an indestructible Spiritual 
effect. 

To apply the dual definition of words to what is 
generally understood as knowledge it reflects all the 
theological disputes with philosophy and the com- 
mon unity of any dominant body of men who could 
control or compel the whole group or nation to sub- 
mit. That is, the treating of knowledge and learning 
as one principle imparted from man to man is so ab- 
struse as to confine intrinsic principles to the under- 
standing of a very few people. These few persons 
are not directly responsible for the maintaining of this 
abstruse condition ; to the contrary a preacher may 
strive to obtain attention in explaining the exact dif- 
ference between the Spiritual and material, it is more 
often pounded into deaf ears than ears of understand- 
ing. The reason is simple, the prerogatives of habit 
and custom so largely predominate, that an intrinsic 
principle is only laughed at by men who claim to be 
learned because others of the same order impart the 



HUMAN EQUITY I 27 

information which supports the idea, since it appears 
true in proportion to the numbers supporting it. To 
assert that Spirit, Knowledge, and Experience were 
identical to the one intrinsic principle of life, beyond 
the limit of any person to impart to another by mere 
volition of will, it would excite a negative controversy 
at once, in proportion to a sincere belief that knowl- 
edge and learning are both a result of being imparted 
from one person to another. It is just as reasonable 
to believe in an error of judgment as it is to believe 
that knowledge is objectively imparted. When that 
conviction is established it would be absurd for a per- 
son to acknowledge also, that knowledge and experi- 
ence were conceptions of a subjective character in no 
sense dependent upon objective authority; by the 
same rule of volition, however, that makes a negative 
equally as possible as a positive, to give this princi- 
ple a reasonable attention it would be necessary to 
study it if only tentatively, as a Spiritual principle 
distinct from political or material influence. It ac- 
counts for the efforts of some of the greatest scholars 
the world has produced in taking a negative stand 
against Christianity, simply because they considered 
that political interests were first in importance, leav- 
ing the intrinsic principle of the Spiritual to be devel- 
oped by political instruction. 

It could only be the sub-educated that would hold 
such a false postion as to declare that an intrinsic 
principle could be improved by any process of cul- 
ture. Objective obligations could be considered sen- 
timentally as paramount to private judgment, but an 
effort to deny an intrinsic principle would be a volun- 
tary admission of servile obedience. Because the sen- 



128 HUMAN EQUITY 

timent could be established by the influence of ma- 
terial gain, that the sub-effect of imparting precon- 
ceived knowledge, elevated the mediate method of 
obtaining it above the immediate or direct Spiritual 
revelation, it would be equivalent to the destruction 
of any intrinsic principle. Thus to assert a belief in 
God dependent upon sub-delivery of His purpose to 
effect the immediate delivery as exemplified by birth 
and experience, it would make logic a fraud and real- 
ity a myth. To effect this purpose revelation was 
given an exclusive appearance to establish a mediate 
principle. It was the boldest stroke of policy that the 
conduct of man ever developed. Its defence has en- 
gaged the greatest intellectual ability that was possi- 
ble for man to obtain. It also presents a reason for 
which scholarly effort has been employed to counter- 
act this policy, only to be defeated by political auth- 
ority. The intrinsic principle of revelation as a direct 
message from God is no less true to-day than when 
Christ was born in a manger. Besides His simple in- 
struction of a "trust in God" does not include a trust 
in political chicanery. History is evidence enough 
that political effort as a general principle has always 
been the burden for Christianity to bear while the 
common people have ever been ready to follow its 
simple teachings. 

When it is observed that neither birth or experi- 
ence has ever been taught by any rule more evident 
than what a person can feel or observe, it is an indi- 
vidual privilege to recognize either event as an intrin- 
sic principle. Knowledge to be a Spiritual Truth can 
be no less than experience, a fact recognized by phil- 
osophers since letters were first invented. It follows, 



HUMAN EQUITY 120, 

no form of human intelligence transcends experience. 
Political authority has always maintained its own ex- 
istence by strenuously defending its supreme author- 
ity over any institution maintained by collective 
strength. At this point the supremacy of personal ex- 
perience becomes more evident, besides no political 
authority was ever able to prevent it, except by a 
penalty for its effect on conduct or by an appeal to 
fear and an ultimate desolution of Spirit and matter, 
termed death, which entails multitudes of definitions. 
The main fact is, no collective organization has ever 
existed to change the individual communion of Spirit 
a single fraction. 

No political system can possibly correspond in any 
sense with the Spiritual as determined by experience. 
It is sheer idleness to delve into the depths of theoso- 
phy as recorded in books to find some reasonable 
grounds to justify a Spiritual authority of one person 
over another that would transcend that which is con- 
ceived by experience. It is only possible by political 
authority constantly seeking some method to change 
the voltaic action of the inner person, that only tem- 
porarily occurs, but powerless to effect permanently. 
Institutions are supported by followers in like man- 
ner to the individual being supported by food. Each 
institution counteracts the effort of the other in try- 
ing to obtain the entire support of the entire human 
race. Every effort to prevent a general recognition 
of a private relation with Spirit by individual person 
will be continued as long as individuals can be per- 
suaded or compelled to support it. No person can be 
oersuaded or compelled, who fully realizes what in- 
tririsi': principles really mean. 



I3O HUMAN EQUITY 



CHAPTER XV. 



DIFFICULTIES. 



WHEN it is observed that difficulties are always a 
contingency of progress and success, it should 
also be noticed that the ambition to overcome obsta- 
cles is the special feature that elevates man above the 
brutes. It is this feature of a common birthright that 
casts a rebuke upon the conduct of man in all ages to 
contend for political preferment to establish degrees 
of ability measured by superficial attainment; rather 
than a just regard for human equity that constantly 
demands recognition. That this principle of equity 
pertaining to the distribution of energy which can be 
no less than Spiritual even if the speculative activity 
seeking to prove that man's conduct is the direct re- 
sult of some external influence. The very effort to 
establish this condition of preferment, when consid- 
ered in connection with the continual failure which 
history and even traditions are ever proclaiming like 
the "writing on the wall" shows its futility. That is, 
to mploy the very energy to defeat the vital prin- 
ciple that makes the personal oneness of each strictly 
dependent upon the voltaic action of a visible under- 
standing of chemical operations. This common prin- 
ciple upon which everything that moves and acts, 
practically universal life, positively, seen and felt, is 
simple compared with the effort of seeking an external 



HUMAN EQUITY I3I 

influence; to control which man would destroy every- 
thing that moves if it were possible. 

To recognize energy as the external activity that 
even conduct depends upon, presents a difficulty that 
grows more difficult since its simplicity becomes 
more apparent. 

Political authority is a mere figure of speech, a 
mere sentiment that represents the conduct of man, 
it is simply a name of the extension of acts which has 
its source in the individual person. To dispute rela- 
tive words and figures of speech would add to diffi- 
culties without rendering any assistance to overcome 
them. Every child knows what conduct relates to as 
soon as it can walk. The volition of the will directs 
the conduct for good or evil before relative words are 
comprehended. If no such difficulties existed as learn- 
ing to walk, or learning to comprehend figures of 
speech, or relative words, there would be no conduct 
from which these means of communication become 
possible. Conduct therefore in its most primitive 
stage presents difficulties of comprehension that es- 
tablishes a confidence in whoever or whatever can at- 
tract the attention of even a child. 

It presents a destructive confusion to a child's 
mind when a dual authority has to be contended with. 
What appears simple at the start becomes complex in 
proportion as difficulties multiply. The slow process 
of deflecting the thoughts from the one principle of 
which moral conduct is naturally established, throws 
the responsibility of the child's future upon external 
influence. These difficulties have to be met by the 
parent as well as the price that natural progress de- 
mands. 



I32 HUMAN EQUITY 

Stages of difficulties continue as a natural sequence 
to development. Such terms as progress, growth, 
civilization, with the modern words, evolution and up- 
lifting, are all contingencies of development that are 
firmly founded upon experience and direct revelation. 
It presents a reciprocity of difficulties since it effectu- 
ally prevents the destruction of the human race from 
the extravagant cultivation of natural desire until it, 
in many cases, becomes a raging greed that is only 
conquered by death. The great difficulty of the pre- 
ceptor in seeking to impart his precepts is met by the 
subject in the form of a difficulty also, to decide 
whether to accept objective influence as opposed to 
his experience and direct revelation. The decision is 
not forced upon a person, for if it could be, there 
would be no occasion for the effort of imparting in- 
formation which implies by the act a belief in the im- 
parting of knowledge that would lead a person to dis- 
trust direct experience and follow the indirect which, 
of itself, represents a sub-knowledge just as dependent 
upon individual conception as that which the subject 
is persuaded to sacrifice. 

No business or policy can exist without patronage. 
To overcome this difficulty, providing the business 
policy was designed to deceive the weak and credu- 
lous, would be simple enough if it was realized that 
the design was to deceive. The difficulty in this case 
would be to penetrate the character of the design 
rather than the objective principle. It brings the fea- 
ture of experience again to the front as the real pene- 
trating principle as well as being the only cognate 
method of obtaining real knowledge. The fact that 
life or birth has to be experienced before an opinion 



HUMAN EQUITY I 33 

could be advanced founded upon either perception or 
conception. There would be no difficulty in destroy- 
ing an institution of deceptive design if the principle 
of imparting sub-knowledge was as perfect as the di- 
rect method of obtaining experience. A complete 
withdrawal of patronage would destroy a deceptive 
design as effectually as an army could be destroyed 
by withholding the supplies. The magnitude of an 
army is often an aid to its own destruction. 

Policy is the very science of design, it may be good 
or evil, but in either case it remains a design. It rep- 
resents an indirect method of attack upon the direct 
princiole, the only principle by which experienr^- or 
knowledge is possible. It would cease to be a policy 
and utterly routed if it could not attract followers by 
which its main support depends. This support is no 
other than the constant effort to proclaim by every 
mouthpiece and every pen permitted to reach the ear 
or eye of the public that knowledge is externally im- 
parted. The entire principle of policy rests upon this 
false foundation. If it was real it would need no sup- 
port, for all the Truth demands is to be recognized. 
The difficulties again appear, for as rapidly as one 
obstruction is removed another appears. The advan- 
tage is always on the side, however, of the most ap- 
parent weakness, which is in possession of the direct 
communication with God, and until that communica- 
tion is severed Policy will have to be revived from a 
continuity of defects. Whether policy relates to 
Christianity or civil authority the result is always the 
same. It should be observed that policy is an ideal 
principle : allowing even that it is derived from a cor- 
poral person it lacks the fixedness of reality. It is, 



134 HUMAN EQUITY 

however, a real ideal conception, by reason of the at- 
tempt to impart it to another person. It is the prin- 
ciple distinct from the conception that is imparted as 
a model for imitation, for to impart the conception 
would be impossible, yet it is the very feature of hu- 
man intelligence that policy attempts to proclaim as 
being not only possible, but the controlling feature 
of obtaining knowledge. Every institution of what- 
ever character rests upon this principle derived from 
personal conception; and the careful effort to avoid 
recognizing the individual character of conception, 
keeps policy busy retreating from its constant diffi- 
culty, seeking some new method of approach only to 
discover itself confronted by the same difficulty. It 
is the same with all systems that are maintained by 
patronage and led by policy. 

When a person is thoroughly convinced that diffi- 
culties are overcome by following some organized 
system, controlled by policy that keeps the most at- 
tractive prospects in constant view; such a person 
would not be convinced he was sacrificing himself to 
the greed of others even if miracles were performed 
to convince him to the contrary. Promoters of 
schemes depend upon convincing followers that suc- 
cess in life is attained by following the visibly success- 
ful. A promoter does not explain that a thief suc- 
ceeds, when his end in view is gained. The scheme 
may have a touch of sincerity in some of its visible 
evidence ; but this would also be included in the 
scheme. Before a child or adult can be misled suffi- 
ciently to follow a scheme, a thorough instruction 
must proceed its success. The difficulty to be over- 
come is the relation between what is Spiritual and 



HUMAN EQUITY I 35 

what is material, for the child must be in possession 
of direct revelation before it can be persuaded to fol- 
low any material scheme (a scheme relates to material 
things or it would have no attraction to induce fol- 
lowers.) The child, therefore, must be led away 
from its immediate communion with Spirit before the 
material world can present sufficient attractions to 
effect such a transfer. With a sub-truth established 
in the plastic brain of a child, it presents greater dif- 
ficulties to persuade the individual, either child, or 
adult, to recognize the Spiritual Truth that no scheme 
ever promoted was ever able to disturb. 

To effect a change of understanding after a sub- 
truth is subscribed to and religiously maintained, 
presents the most stupendous difficulty that the hu- 
man race has to contend with. No reasonable person 
unbiased by policy, scheme, or materialism, could 
show a divine purpose more real than the individual 
obligation for the perception of light, than to Light 
itself. It follows, also that the individual relation to 
God cannot be less direct than the perception of Light. 
If all the direct influences which are of the first im- 
portance are to be sacrificed to indirect influences, the 
child must be trained to obey external authority until 
a belief in the objective imparting of knowledge is 
complete. The possibility, therefore, of a child being 
misled or persuaded to believe that its very thoughts 
were imparted, will never elevate evil over good. 
The Truth as a principle could not suffer by reason of 
the fact that it was the Truth and if the child is mis- 
led by external influence it never effects the inner con- 
ception of what is real. The conceived Truth is too 
positive to be the subject of influence; and when man 



I36 HUMAN EQUITY 

sets up a sub-truth it is within such a sphere of con- 
duct that good or evil must be contended with. That 
is, the Truth is superior to external influence, it can- 
not be controlled by a sub-effect of the Truth itself. 

A sincere conviction that Spiritual effect is the re- 
sult of external influence presents a difficulty of com- 
prehension as much so as for darkness to contend 
against the light. The policy of maintaining this fal- 
lacy of trying to control Spiritual knowledge by ex- 
ternal influence, presents a form of slavery that must 
eventually be more damaging to society than the 
emancipation of the chattel slave. To observe this 
situation in the light of reason, it presents no difficulty 
except to such as persist in holding to the political 
interpretation of what is strictly Spiritual conception. 

The real difficulty is individual rather than one ap- 
pearing to demand a safeguard of society depending 
upon collective organization for protection. There 
was never an external influence more potent than an 
appeal to the sense of fear; taken in connection with 
love, it could readily be seen that either factor pre- 
sents a timidity over which external effort may con- 
trol individual judgment. Reason, courage, or even 
freedom cannot be imparted by external force, fear 
therefore being so readily appealed to as a means of 
subjugation the relation of a precept to a concept was 
that of a ruler over a subject. This principle becom- 
ing so thoroughly established since one man with 
courage could command the services of a hundred, 
was a temptation more destructive to the tyrant than 
fear was to his subjects. 

Whether it is difficult or not for the credulous and 
timid to comprehend the reason why they can be so 



HUMAN EQUITY I 37 

readily controlled by external influence, it is not diffi- 
cult for a person who is able to exercise external in- 
fluence over another that he is more a creature of fic- 
tion than a reality. He knows that to practice his 
own precepts it would destroy the sentiment of im- 
parting sense conception, for he could neither be the 
preceptor or find followers to whom he could impart 
his precepts, if conception was not a previous fact that 
his precepts practically demand. In face of the ret- 
ributions which are recorded in history it must sug- 
gest to the thinking man that whatever exists between 
God and man it could not be less than the Truth of 
which personal conception is constantly asserting 
when the policy of a sub-truth should stand out in its 
own falseness. 

Formidable difficulties are presented in great vari- 
ety, to overcome which human energy is taxed to its 
limit. It is also multiplied by objective influence in 
the form of material attractions making the path of 
progress a mass of obstacles. Even attractions are 
but a snare to draw the attention from the real Truth. 
To overcome these difficulties one must observe the 
motive in the material sense. It is not reasonable 
that an individual person seeks to give more in ex- 
change for something of less value. When this prin- 
ciple is applied to mental commerce, the so-called ex- 
change of thoughts (an impossibility from a Spiritual 
view) the same effort to prey upon the weak is even 
more noticeable than in the exchange of material 
things. To interfere with this "freedom of trade" 
gives the principle more of a specific privilege than 
having any relation to such a generous word as "free- 
dom." It reflects a logical conclusion when it is ob- 



I38 HUMAN EQUITY 

served that men are more willing to fight in defence 
of whatever commerce they are engaged in, than they 
are in trying to impart instruction that would prac- 
tically endanger the same commerce. 

Man fights to overcome difficulties that obstruct 
his natural rights to progress. It would be suicide to 
fight for the protection of obstacles to his own prog- 
ress. The varied methods of overcoming difficulties 
are the mere abstracts of a general principle. The 
child must either contend against difficulties or sub- 
mit to the limitation of progress so far as it concerns 
himself. The motive is so clear for maintaining a 
parallel relation between man and man to that be- 
tween God and man, it could not be overlooked with- 
out betraying mental defect or positive dishonesty. It 
is no more the fault of the child in being compelled to 
submit to literal dishonesty than it was to be com- 
pelled to submit to the conception of Light. Also in 
whatever form this dishonesty of man presents itself, 
it relates to commerce of some character. To apolo- 
gize for the human disposition to be dishonest in the 
interest of progress is a simple acknowledgment of the 
person apologizing that he lacks the moral courage to 
state publicly what he knows to be the Truth. 

Progress is emplanted in the human seed and the 
man who endeavors to show the experience of main- 
taining an objective authority over the subjective, 
knows it to be a psychological impossibility to either 
abstract or impart this human function into anything 
of a material character. Because a human being can 
be trained or distorted by external influence analo- 
gous to the distortion of language, it does not in any 
sense effect the Truth implanted in the human seed. 



HUMAN EQUITY I 39 

It is this principle that defies the most brilliant effort 
of designing man to supersede. Human seed like any 
seed will develop if the difficulties are not too severe 
for the tender shoot to overcome, but under any cir- 
cumstances of difficulty some of the seed will take 
root and develop the courage that defies material ob- 
structions in proportion to the recognition of the 
Truth, which penetrates all the obstructions to human 
progress and dissolves difficulties as readily as a sun- 
beam overcomes the obstinacy of a piece of ice. 



I4O HUMAN EQUITY 



CHAPTER XVI. 

SACRED PERSONALITY. 

IF the standard definition of words is to continue to 
be an exclusive privilege of an esoteric tribunal, the 
advent of Christianity that renewed the primordial es- 
sense of freedom, is equally envolved in the continuity 
of this objective authority over subjective weakness. 
As a moral principle it has no more standing than the 
ancient sentiment of the right to property in man. 
The apology for slavery so ably written by Mr. Her- 
bert Spencer is lacking in not having any tone of 
Christianity which breathes of freedom and human 
equity. The question of maintaining a supremacy of 
one person over another by reason of superficial ac- 
quirements must be subject to limitation or human 
progress is a myth. 

Words to be honest must relate to the direct Spirit- 
ual revelation that concerns the Truth, an unfailing 
entity; a just reason for which no person has need to 
complain. Regardless of the numerous definitions ap- 
plied to the word "Person" it should first be observed 
that it applies to an infinite entity no less positive and 
perfect than Light or Truth. Whatever power or 
reason an esoteric tribunal possesses to establish de- 
finitions to signs, symbols, or words, such authority is 
certainly subordinate to whatever principle is univer- 
sally acknowledged to be infinite. Custom even is 



HUMAN EQUITY I4I 

but a feeble apology for such a false position, to main- 
tain that a mere word can apply to a positive and 
negative principle at the same instant of time and 
space. For a collective body or a single indvidual to 
defend an ambiguous word, to protect a design or 
scheme of whatever character, it is distinctly opposite 
to the command, "go preach the Gospel." The fact 
that a self-conscious person can assert the divisibility 
of the word "person" is the reason why another indi- 
vidual person equally conscious of the Light can by 
the same cognate energy assert that "person" relating 
to self-consciousness is indivisible. That is, that 
Person as a conscious being cannot be separated from 
a direct communion of Spirit. Words have been so 
distorted for political effect that it is next to an im- 
possibility for the exoteric layman to understand what 
is simple to the esoteric profession. Human under- 
standing seems to be distinctly separated by a dual 
etymology. That is, if the professional peerage are 
agreed upon the definition of the word "person" the 
layman must apparently submit to whatever defini- 
tion appears more appropriate for the weaker vassal. 
The word "person" is extremely important since re- 
publicanism entered into competition with theoracies. 
Mathamatically the word "person" can be individu- 
alized, after which to "talk back" would be treated as 
an impertinence if not a sacrilege, but to "think back" 
would introduce a more difficult proposition to over- 
come. Now there is just as much difference from a 
Spiritual standpoint between logic and mathematics 
as there is between the Truth and that which is false. 
This is not to enlighten the esoteric scholars, for he 
would not be such if he needed to be reminded of it, 



I42 HUMAN EQUITY 

but the victims of this secret tribunal could observe 
that person relates to one Spiritual principle, not only 
invisible but indivisible. Thus person could only be 
treated mathematically as parts of person; in like 
manner as substance could be divided. It does not 
disturb, however, the Spiritual feature of person, it 
merely individualizes person for political effects. 

A person is no less such by reason of being abso- 
lutely illiterate. To take objection to this assertion 
the definition of the word "person" becomes immedi- 
ately involved. If it is insisted upon that the word 
applies to a specific character, it would imply that a 
man was not a person unless he was a gentleman. 
This situation also calls for a definite authority for 
the word "gentleman." The mere reference to custom 
would be a weak apology for a falsehood in the inter- 
est of protecting society in its broad sense. That is, 
if society depends upon the divisibility of person to 
such an extent that the word "Person" becomes so in- 
volved that only the literally learned can maintain a 
divisibility of humanity against the illterate, when it 
would be so illogical to declare a belief in a personal 
God without betraying literal ignorance more gross 
than would be possible for the most unlearned illit- 
erate person in existence That is, if the ability to dis- 
tort words by giving them a dual definition was neces- 
sary to maintain the divisibility of person acknowl- 
edged to be in the image of its creator, the application 
of the word "person" to God, admitted to be absolute 
perfection, would represent the most blasphemous ut- 
terance of which man is more capable than the lowest 
brute. 

To recognize God as Person is either a political 



HUMAN EQUITY 1 43 

scheme, or the entire human race are embraced in the 
observation. No literal or militant authority can pre- 
vent an individual person from recognizing- the sacred 
personality of the communion of Spirit. No possible 
circumstance could arise to reverse private judgment 
after the individual once recognized the impossibility 
of transmitting the communion of Spirit by any literal 
method. A correspondence of thought between two 
individuals may be reached by the comparison of one 
object with another, but when names are treated with 
equal importance as the object named, some scheme of 
man is involved in the transaction. Thus to associate 
a name with a positive object and then give the name 
a dual sense of meaning by the fiat of man is a distinct 
fraud with intent to deceive or the act could not pos- 
sibly be performed. 

That this fraud does not relate to the subjective 
follower, or the obedient vassal who can be pointed 
out as a model to emulate, it does not in any sense in- 
volve the Spiritual character of Person for the relation 
between man and man is not a perfect situation by 
reason of the perfection of Spiritual person compared 
with the imperfection of political conduct. It is a self- 
impeachment of any representative body to whom the 
people look to for protection, against the power of the 
strong to crush the weak, when the word "person" 
is juggled with to obtain the confidence of the un- 
learned in the trick ; while the same word is employed 
to give the appearance of sacredness to the relation 
of a representative body to the people at large as that 
between God and man. The sacred character of Per- 
son in its corporal form resembles a human soul no 
less perfect than every attempt by both the ancients 



144 HUMAN EQUITY 

and moderns to give to it a material perception. To 
elevate the political above the Spiritual has been the 
ideal motive of collective bodies since man first dis- 
covered he could manipulate instruments to promote 
whatever end he chose. 

Because natural man could be imposed upon in the 
past by reason of his ignorance of artificial acquire- 
ments, it presents no valid reason for trying to effect 
the same end by clinging desperately to the same prin- 
ciple that gave objective supervision over the ignorant 
who lacked only an understanding of the instruments 
employed, either mechanical tools or letters. It 
would be idle in this era of republicanism and Christi- 
anity for the ultra learned to claim any Spiritual dif- 
ference between mechanical instruments and letters. 
The only advantage that letters possessed was thor- 
oughly explored before the Christian era. It is now 
the privilege under a republican form of government, 
for the individual person to determine what the dif- 
ference is between letters and mechanical tools. Pro- 
viding none of an ethical character could be discov- 
ered, it would cast a bright light upon the Spiritual 
relation between Person active and person passive. 

The only opposition to recognizing the right of in- 
dividual judgment is always political in some form 
or another. To serve this purpose of policy consis- 
tently the dual definition of the word "person" must 
be employed to show a distinction of the superiority 
of letters over mechanical tools. It would be too vol- 
uminous to exploit the imposition that the dual defini- 
tion of words makes possible, but it grows more and 
more difficult for the ultra learned to apologize for the 
multitude of disappointments of those who have been 



HUMAN EQUITY 1 45 

led to believe that the learning how to distort words 
is the only road to salvation in the future in propor- 
tion to the humble submission to the present. 

To treat this subject upon the ground principle 
without prejudice, as between man and man, or friend 
to friend, could any objection be made to observing 
that person in its relation to an individual human be- 
ing is the most sacred institution in its various organic 
activities that moves on the face of the earth? To 
avoid a misunderstanding it would be no disrespect 
to anyone's opinion to consider the word "Person" 
as relating to the Spiritual activity of the entire 
human race. This consideration would not effect 
whatever belief one might choose to entertain. 
Schemes, doctrines, race distinctions, or ideal theories 
could be recognized as effects of the One cause by 
which everything moves. Whatever object moves 
by its own sentient action in a diversified direction, is 
an obvious proof that it is in possession of directing 
authority as well as the energy to act. It is self- 
evident by virtue of experience and the observations 
of others that the object thus equiped knows he is a 
sentient being. It establishes a direct revelation that 
no political authority can effect. Upon this funda- 
mental principle society and every vestige of political 
authority depends. 

This principle designated as "Person" could not 
be any less than God and even if He was more, the 
individual person could not reasonably expect a revel- 
ation by command, or demand, that would depend 
upon the direct relation of which he was already in 
possession. Permitting that one person believed he 
knew more about God by reason of his greater volume 



I46 HUMAN EQUITY 

of acquirements, he would immediately meet opposi- 
tion to such a pretension. This alone would betray 
the difference between the Truth and a belief, for two 
individuals, each having the direct revelation which 
would be no less than the Truth, yet believing diverse- 
ly, it would distinctly show that a belief that God 
was a distinct personality directing the movement of 
an object in addition to the direct revelation would 
be absurd, equivelent to holding that diverse beliefs 
could control the Truth. Again it would be the effect 
trying to control its own cause. The limit of political 
authority is to obstruct the public exchange of 
thoughts relatively portrayed by the action of Person, 
the early definition of the word being "speech" would 
indicate without much thinking that man, person, 
speech, logos, and God were identical symbols that 
political authorities had juggled with to confound 
and distract the attention of the people for fear they 
would discover the difference between a political be- 
lief and a Spiritual Truth. 

If political authority was influenced by any addi- 
tional revelation separate from the individual, repre- 
senting a sacred personality that is universal, there 
would be no sense in apologizing for political conduct 
on the ground of the disposition of humanity to drift 
into evil conduct by reason of material attractions that 
political authority depends upon for existence. That 
is if political action was directed by Spiritual author- 
ity to overcome the evil and diverse conduct of in- 
dividual person, it needs no better evidence to con- 
tradict political usurpation than a careful study of 
the records of the past. Besides, to be obliged to pro- 
tect a double standard of etymology by which the 



HUMAN EQUITY 147 

ammunition of argument will not fit the simple caliber 
of natural intelligence. Political authority can readily 
be believed to be invincible but it is incumbered with 
a weakness, a burden to protect its own duplicity. 
Whatever collective institution that thrives by main- 
taining a double standard of etymology is burdened 
with an artificial belief in a forelorn contention against 
the natural Truth. 

The principle of Truth relating to person can be ap- 
plied to the Scriptures without a single flaw in the 
declaration. For instance : "First, second, and third 
person establishes a political supervision over the 
Scriptures, incidentally Christianity and positively 
the Truth, for otherwise political authority would 
not so much as noticed Christianity. It is always the 
purpose of political authority to obstruct any prin- 
ciple that it cannot supervise. Since primitive man 
first put a feather in his head-band to indicate supreme 
authority, political authority has diligently followed 
the same principle. The recognition of Christianity 
has only been to the extent that political authority 
could supervise it. The authority for this situ- 
ation could be observed in studying the two schools 
of learning distinctly opposed, one of which being 
styled "dogmatics," the other "apologetics." It is 
not the immediate purpose to criticize either school 
as regards to their merits. It is the one feature that 
the greatest learning of the world is divided into two 
schools, shows distinctly that each are more interested 
in maintaining a supervision over Christianity directed 
by secular learning, rather than plainly acknowledg- 
ing its simplicity. 

The Bible is authority from cover to cover for the 



I48 HUMAN EQUITY 

Spiritual authority of only One Person. This can 
only be recognized personally identical with direct 
revelation. No political authority of a collective char- 
acter can transfer the Truth into a belief by the mere 
interpretation of the Scriptures, for the act itself im- 
plies a supervision over direct revelation. It is this 
continual effort to deny the sacredness of personality 
in the individual babe able to perceive the Light 
directly revealed to it, that feeds the continual craze 
over science, skepticism and the "higher critics." If 
a person must first subscribe to some specific inter- 
pretation of the Scripture as directed by the political 
supervision over etymology, Christianity would in 
accord with such efforts, be a religion of the same 
standing as all other political religions. It would 
forceably transfer the direct revelation to the indirect 
political authority. The real Truth of the Scripture, 
however, would continue to be as sacred as person- 
ality itself. It is this recognition of the freedom of 
thought and the Spiritual interpretation of direct 
revelation that gives to Christianity the ascendency 
over political supervision, or any political religion 
ever established. No person is obliged to cultivate a 
belief of what he knows from direct revelation; and 
political effort to supervise the Truth will be a stern 
chase in proportion to the moral courage of sacred 
personality. 



HUMAN EQUITY 149 



CHAPTER XVII. 

INSTITUTIONAL QUACKERY. 

EGOTISTICAL learning is synthetical with arro- 
gance, greed, and a rank growth of vanity. In 
the absence of moral integrity, the intoxication may 
be embalmed in the most exquisite tranquility of 
manners. The affectation of virtue is a pitfall more 
destructive of human happiness than poverty or 
the lingering torture of physical ills. A person may 
be trained in all the sciences, and also learned in the 
skill of diplomacy and the art of emotional control, 
yet if he becomes puffed by his vain-glorious acquire- 
ments, nothing but a severe reaction will restore such 
a character to a normal state of natural intelligence. 
The reasonable supposition that the virtue of the 
human race is securely preserved in the human seed 
does not justify the egotistic arrogance that man and 
man permitted to exchange with each other in various 
commercial relations. 

Man cries for assistance while he stubbornly refuses 
to admit he is his own master. The eager effort to 
command attention prevents the practice of humility 
that would disclose the fact to a person that he was 
but a very small part of a common whole. To recog- 
nize the simple Truth of Christianity without the fog 
of political supervision would be too humilitating to 
the self-sufficient, in possession of mere effects. 



I50 HUMAN EQUITY 

What constitutes an institution from a material 
standpoint would be like a railway embankment as a 
concrete whole composed of abstract parts each of 
which being an institution independent of the other. 
From a Spiritual view each institution would be a 
sentient object bound together for mutual advantage, 
yet in complete possession of what might be termed 
institutional freedom. To disintegrate the Spiritual 
from the material would be equivalent to depriving 
each institution from having any political activity for 
a common purpose. 

The importance of this supposition is to observe 
that neither Spirit or matter, as such, have the ability 
separately to command the unity necessary to become 
an active institution. The unity must be a fact before 
a single atom of matter absolutely passive can move. 
To recognize therefore that matter, as such, is ab- 
solutely passive, is a necessary principle to establish 
a perfect understanding of the fundamental construc- 
tion of an institution. To be more concise even, the 
most minute seed is an institution of necessity before 
either perception followed by conception could be 
possible. To recognize a common beginning either 
concretely or abstractly, would avoid polemic dif- 
ficulties. 

The political as an effect of institutions rather than 
their cause is a feature which every one is compelled 
by his very existence to choose continually, a prin- 
ciple eternally fixed as life. That is, one must act 
either right or wrong to maintain a clear title to a 
continuity of conscious life. This choice could be 
made quite simple after a careful study of the political 
influence that is also as constant as life itself in its 



HUMAN EQUITY 151 

effort to determine the choice. Policy considered as 
a scheme renders no assistance whatever, for as such, 
it is engaged in protecting its own end. It being an 
ideal institution, rather than a flesh and blood reality, 
makes it an ever present pitfall either to accept and 
serve at its command, or avoid and be free. The 
strict justice of an impartial Creator could be more 
safely relied upon than that of any political institu- 
tion that written records reveal. Hence to choose 
between policy founded upon material attractions is 
to support institutional quackery in preference to the 
direct relation between God and man as instituted in 
the individual person. 

The relation between man and man (concrete 
society) is concerned in the collective institution for 
either social effect or the protection of free movement. 
What is termed "free institution" presents a very 
sweeping generality of expression, covering an end- 
less variety of ends. The conflict between institu- 
tions composed of collective units of humanity are 
remarkable in maintaining a policy dependent upon 
the physical strength of numbers. It would appear 
absurd and generally admitted to be egotistic to re- 
cognize the individual as having any relation other 
than subservient to some collective institution. That 
this is a policy of accomodation is an important fea- 
ture to observe, for however insignificant the unit 
of a collective body may appear, he is the bone of con- 
tention between all the collective institutions in exist- 
ence. 

That all institutions composed of numbers are as 
strictly dependent upon the units they practically 
ignore, suggests a parellel that fire depends upon fuel 



I52 HUMAN EQUITY 

to consume. It is this misleading feature that at- 
tracts the unit either to destruction or to a final end 
of natural freedom or what was termed in the middle 
ages "the right of private judgment." That natural 
freedom coupled to the right of private judgment has 
always been a principle at enmity with institutional 
quackery is the point where innocence and ignorance 
can both be duped, showing the contempt for Nature 
while appropriating its supporting necessity for main- 
taining a policy of duplicity. 

That quackery could not be justly applied to all col- 
lective institutions does not effect the general prin- 
ciple of material attractions to mislead the credulous. 
The fact that each collective institution maintains a 
distinct policy more or less at variance with each 
other, seeking by declaration of purpose to benefit 
its patrons, shows them to be in degrees antagon- 
istical, having a counteracting effect, that reflects a 
leveling process parallel to the personal institution 
or unit of collective institution. That is, if institu- 
tions thrive by reason of their political strife with 
each other, the general relation between Spiritual 
authority and the political is not disturbed an atom. 

The relation between God and man is no less in- 
violate by reason of institutional competition to mono- 
polize this absolute condition. If this was not a fact 
there would be no occasion for competitive institu- 
tions to vie with each other in presenting new 
methods of practically appropriating an institution of 
superiority to sustain one, in reality inferior. That 
is, if the private relation between God and man was 
not superior to a collective institution of whatever 
magnitude there would be no material effort possible, 



HUMAN EQUITY I 53 

seeking to maintain an appearance of supersedure 
over Spiritual authority. When there are multitudes 
of policies claiming a supervision over the Spiritual 
personality of the individual, it reflects a greater 
anxiety to protect the institution involved, rather than 
to enlighten the individual with nothing but a simple 
communion of Spirit for protection. 

The educational institution of either a secular or 
religious character cannot escape censure from the 
strict Christian institution, that to be such, it must 
recognize the individual freedom of thought untainted 
by any policy whatever. The sophisticated learned 
more intent upon the defence of esoteric terminology 
as the only method of imparting moral obligations, 
will encourage more skepticism and material sen- 
timent than it can counteract, for it establishes a for- 
mula of worship by which means conduct of the most 
immoral character is hidden by the mere literal ability 
to hide it. The simple requirements of Christianity 
are better understood by the illiterate ; certainly more 
correctly practiced than by the devotees of superficial 
acquirements. 

The worship of literal words is identical to the 
worship of pagan figures. It is only necessary to 
observe the results of secular learning and oblique 
methods employed by educational institutions to 
verify the effort to restore pagan learning disguised 
in the name of Christianity. It could be readily dis- 
puted by reference to material progress but if material 
reward is to be elevated above Spiritual reward by 
sheer force of literal learning it requires no prophet 
to show that Christianity would, so far as such learn- 
ing indicated, be consigned to a political religion; 



154 HUMAN EQUITY 

merely duplicating the "new learning" that sprung up 
after the dark ages of institutional corruption in the 
Roman church, only to become more licentious than 
that which it pretended to reform. The political effort 
to make Christianity a literal religion would appear to 
be as futile as the political effort to exterminate it in 
the period of its early career. 

It need not cast any reflection upon progress or 
literal attainments to realize that the Truth needs 
no institutional support. Both of these features are 
as natural as vegetable growth. 

The institution which derives its authority from 
the star-chamber of esoteric learning has no just claim 
to the supervision of Christianity. To make it better 
understood, Christianity is either a Spiritual entity as 
Christ proclaimed it to be, or from the esoteric stand- 
point, a literal religion of the same character of all 
literal or political religions. To confound the Spiri- 
tual feature of Christianity with the esoteric ability 
of man to maintain a dual standard of etymology 
practically excludes the illiterate from any right of 
judgment in what the literal Scriptures mean for when 
an ordinary layman is confronted with the ambiguity 
of literal words, he is practically confounded in his 
own private judgment until he can be persuaded to 
believe that salvation can only be obtained by sub- 
scribing to the authority of the star-chamber of ety- 
mology. To maintain a literal Christ as transcending a 
Spiritual Christ, has been the policy of esoteric learn- 
ing since Christ was crucified. The modern develop- 
ment of republicanism and the popularity of free in- 
stitutions makes it extremly difficult at the present 
time to torture the disbeliever in the esoteric author- 



HUMAN EQUITY I 55 

ity over etymology. The scheme will cease just as 
soon as the people have courage enough to withdraw 
their support. 

Etymology is concerned only with material and 
political affairs, it having no effect whatever upon 
Spiritual Truth. Such Truth has no need for support 
of any character and one has only to know God, to 
know Christ also. No literal transmission as con- 
ducted by political authority has power to counteract 
the direct communion of Spirit or direct revelation. 
To Know God is as dependent upon moral courage 
as the continuity of conscious life depends upon each 
beat of the heart. When the relation of politics and 
civil authority upon the example of Christ is realized 
either collectively or individually, it would be a con- 
tradiction of the Spiritual character of Christianity 
to proclaim that it depended upon literal words to 
impart it. 

To prevent any literal communication between man 
and man, would be impossible since educational in- 
stitutions are to attract patronage as a possible means 
of escape from natural obligations. The simple re- 
quirements of Christian conduct, and the unacquired 
natural born ability for man to communicate by 
comparative signs which are directly revealed, pre- 
senting an important reason why institutional quack- 
ery can profit by supporting a dogma of pagan origin, 
to wit: that virtue and knowledge can be taught or 
imparted which is a transgression against Spiritual 
revelation that the Bible from cover to cover rebukes 
in terms of which literal duplicity could seek in vain 
for comfortable justification. To maintain a political 
dogma conceived by the sophistical pagans, even 



I56 HUMAN EQUITY 

simple-minded republicans will not be slower to grasp, 
than Greek and Roman slaves were when the rage 
for unearned increments reached a point above the 
food-producing energy to support. That this infallible 
order of nature can be overcome by a mere dual 
etymology of what literal words relate to, present a 
situation that can only be redeemed by the moral 
courage of the unit of personality representing a 
Spiritual institution that political and militant institu- 
tions were never able to control. 

The etymologist, or he who would apologize for the 
dual character of words as a means of maintaining 
authority, should be careful to consider whether he 
was not digging his own grave deeper in trying to 
maintain the sophistry of the pagans, to wit: that 
virtue and knowledge can be imparted to effect a 
purpose of maintaining a political authority tentatively 
above the Spiritual. For instance : to maintain that 
Christianity was a system or scheme demanding literal 
methods to impart it, on parallel lines conparable with 
political and commercial schemes to promote adula- 
tion and material gain; it would make it a mere reli- 
gion of accomodation. 

It would harm no one to recognize that Christianity 
is either the Truth or its representative for the pur- 
pose of imparting the Truth. This particularly con- 
cerns institutions that depend upon some constitu- 
tional policy to transmit the "glad tidings" to pos- 
terity. No institution could logically sustain a sin- 
cere purpose founded upon any negative formula 
denying Spiritual authority, except it was transmitted 
by some literal signs. The very facts that letters 
were invented by human intelligence as dependent 



HUMAN EQUITY I 57 

upon Spiritual energy as corporal life is upon the 
beating of the heart, consigns the letter to art, or the 
work of man in reality an abstract of knowledge, to 
dispute which would be additional proof of the im- 
possibility of literal words imparting an absolute 
Truth from one man to another. 

With no policy to protect it would be simple to 
recognize the Spiritual equity of humanity as a con- 
crete entity, from which, policy, conduct, and the am- 
biguity of literal words are abstracts. It would also 
be a sophistical apology for maintaining a condition 
of duplicity that practically admitted a lack of con- 
fidence between man and man. No better evidence 
would be obtained that this lack of confidence exists 
than the effort to apologize for evil which would com- 
mit the man making such an apology, to a policy that 
better be shunned than emulated. 

To recognize that religions are many, while religion 
is only One, is comparable with Spirit also, for spirits 
may be many with only One demanding allegiance 
equally as direct as it is revealed. God, Truth, Knowl- 
edge and Virtue treated as symbols, relate to the 
direct revelation that no literal method has ever been 
discovered by which the principle could be imparted. 
The mere pretension therefore of any institution im- 
parting knowledge is an admission of quackery. Ap- 
plied to Christianity a situation identical to whether 
knowledge can be imparted obliquely to overrule the 
knowledge directly revealed. When it is observed 
again that the Truth is a principle to be accepted as 
a preferred gift, rather than a principle demanding 
support, it could be equally recognized that the teach- 
ing of Christianity is impossible. That is, Christianity 



I58 HUMAN EQUITY 

relates to Christ, and if it was not the Truth it was 
not Christianity, which would consign the principle 
to a political scheme. Now the fact that the preach- 
ings (not teachings) of Christ did not in any sense 
embrace civil or political authority, from which source 
He was constantly persecuted, it follows, since civil 
authority is an abstract power compared to the Spiri- 
tual that political authority will destroy itself before 
it could succeed in embracing Christianity. 

What institutional quackery means is the preten- 
tious effort of imparting Spiritual knowledge, with a 
declared purpose of uniting the political and Spiritual 
which, if it were possible in this enlightened age, it 
would revive the effort of the Roman Church in the 
"Dark Ages." Slavery is gradually receding in pro- 
portion to the recognition that Christianity is the 
Truth rather than a political scheme. 



HUMAN EQUITY I 59 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

ADVANTAGE OF CULTURE 

TO render to political authority all that belongs to it 
would not in any sense infringe upon a perfect ren- 
dering to Spiritual authority also. It is in the parting 
of the ways that the advantage of culture is concerned. 
To recognize the natural as the Spiritual is no re- 
proach to culture. As a figure of speech the natural 
relates to some substance, but to recognize that 
neither substance or its movement could be culti- 
vated, would put the principle on a basis of Truth. 
To consider conduct, manners, and degrees of ex- 
tention as applicable to what the word "culture" re- 
lates to, it would exclude its use by any principle of 
supposition that cultivation could be imparted. 

The positive and negative relation of cultivation to 
growth and civilization is bound up with concrete 
words having corresponding relations. The word has 
no significance beyond the comparative principle of 
protraying thoughts of the imagery of the mind. 
When the principle is applied to obligation and obed- 
ience with a disregard for the Spiritual principle of 
contract or mutual agreement, cultivation is more an 
obstruction to civilization than a promoter. Concrete 
action or the entity of energy by which means sub- 
stance is moved, cultivation is possible as an abstract 
principle in the sense that learning is an abstract of 



l6o HUMAN EQUITY 

concrete knowledge, both words relating to the eternal 
Spirit that moves everything. It does not concern 
the principle in the least whether it is believed or 
not, there is no reason to doubt that the sublimity of 
the Spiritual will preside over any policy that man will 
ever be able to inaugurate. If the privilege of culti- 
vation was strictly employed in promoting an im- 
proved understanding between man and man, no one 
could justly object to being cultivated with that end 
in view. 

The best tools can be as readily used in burglary as 
to advance the growth of social improvement, for that 
reason mere cultivation does not guarantee moral 
conduct. The fact, therefore, that cultivation relates 
to opposite principles, the one offensive and the other 
defensive, makes it pertinent to the present state of 
things to consider the motive for acquiring such an 
advantage o ver a fellow-creature. If the conclusions 
of the cultivated ancients are to be considered as pre- 
senting a worthy motive, stealing and piracy should 
be as much at a premium at the present time as in the 
past. That is, if material aggrandizement is the mo- 
tive the consequences would naturally follow. 

To present a subject so delicate without an expo- 
sure to a multitude of objections is not so difficult as 
it might appear to the objector, for it is from no 
effort to deny the force of influence or example as a 
principle that cannot be taught or imparted. It is the 
recognition of what constitutes the Truth that would 
involve the objector equally as much as the subject 
matter suggesting the objection. In asserting that 
knowledge (meaning direct revelation) cannot be 
taught or imparted is to call attention to the analogy 



HUMAN EQUITY l6l 

that the Truth cannot be cultivated. For an objector 
to rely upon the political standard of etymology to 
sustain his objections would be to declare publicly 
that he had more faith in political authority than in 
the Truth directly revealed. It is not the present pur- 
pose to even attempt to harmonize such objections. 
To assert that Nature is parallel to the Truth is in- 
tended to mean Nature as active, rather than to cast 
a reproach as a matter of policy, to sustain material- 
ism, by trying to prove scientifically that Nature is 
simply a passive substance to be cultivated and im- 
proved by human intelligence. It is not the purpose 
of disputing what appears to be conviction so defi- 
nitely settled. It is more to call attention to the fact 
that political authority has no remarkable record of 
ever settling any principle other than by the fiat of 
man either individually, or to whatever extent col- 
lectively. To recognize also that letters were an in- 
vention of man protected by the strict supervision of 
political authority, it is certainly surprising to note 
that human infants continue to cry in the natural 
language. 

Nature as an active institution would be as impos- 
sible to cultivate as the Truth or any state of perfec- 
tion of a Spiritual character. The relation of cultiva- 
tion to an advantage of one man over another presents 
a situation, for which a responsibility must exist, or 
to be born is a misfortune that would elevate suicide 
to a virtue. To dispute the esoteric professor becomes 
less dangerous for two reasons, the principal one of 
which is, the professors are becoming so numerous 
that the secrets of their power grow correspondingly 
more difficult to preserve. The other reason is, the 



1 62 HUMAN EQUITY 

cultivation of the freedom of thought and a natural- 
born right to private judgment, represents a paradoxi- 
cal situation with a greater crop of professors ; the 
need for them grows less in proportion to the moral 
courage of the individual person recognizing he has a 
clear natural title to his intelligence, however feeble 
it may be. The pretence of man in his effort to im- 
part a virtue equivalent to the weakest intellect di- 
rectly revealed, is a benefice of commercial profit to 
the pretender. Allowing the political protection to 
the pretension of imparting knowledge or cultivating 
the Truth, it remains a mere speculation that man 
can impart that of more value to each other than what 
is revealed at birth. 

The advantage of cultivation is an evidence of the 
universal equity to the innate privilege of progress, in 
no sense imparted, for the privilege exists in the hu- 
man seed, into which no fraction of man's iniquity 
can enter. Cultivation, therefore, is a feature of com- 
mercialism, as related to the Spiritual, it is strictly op- 
posite, relating entirely to materialism and political 
preferment. The fact that cultivation is confined to 
the relation between man and man with his gregari- 
ous disposition makes it important to consider per- 
sonally whether one can believe more than the Truth. 
Thus to observe privately, when a person can at least 
be honest to himself, can a person consciously admit 
to himself that it is possible to cultivate a Spiritual 
principle? This is important for the reason that some 
incentive of advantage must exist to incite a desire 
for cultivation ; but when moral obligations are 
strictly confined to the Spiritual (as one chooses to 
elect by his private judgment) necessarily opposed to 



HUMAN EQUITY 163 

the material, it presents a situation that the cultivated 
ability to distort words would be as useless as an ice- 
plant in the arctic regions. It need not imply that 
cultivation is necessarily a detriment to moral recti- 
tude ; but for the reason that some material advan- 
tage is the main incentive, the danger that the wor- 
ship of materialism will become so attractive that cul- 
tivation as such will present a virtuous excellence 
that the end would justify the means, which are too 
often obtained by the remarkable skill of cultivated 
persons in the art of distorting words. 

It concerns no one more than the perpetrator of in- 
iquity to defend the dual character of words as a 
means to maintain an advantage over those who are 
persuaded to believe, that superficial excellence is a 
reward of diligence in mastering written language ; 
defining itself so as to give excellence of rendering an 
appearance of virtue that transcends the natural or 
Spiritual. Thus to confine cultivation to the art of 
beautifying and attaining a more perfect degree of ex- 
cellence cannot involve the natural without an injus- 
tice to nature, or so appropriating of the use of words 
to elevate the imitation (art) to a position more beauti- 
ful with greater excellence of rendering than the ca- 
pability of Nature itself. To strictly confine the beau- 
tiful to materialism would be a tentative effort to ex- 
clude the invisible from any participation in things 
beautiful, yet it involves a situation of inconsistency, 
even more absurd than to advance the dogma, of a 
human or political supervision over the Truth or the 
very essence of Christianity. Who could be so unjust 
to one's self as to exclude the sense of perception by 
which means only the conception of excellence could 
be possible? 



164 HUMAN EQUITY 

Because it is possible to impart a gross imitation of 
Spiritual authority, practically a material deception 
aided by the distortion of words, to confound the un- 
derstanding to the extent of a pledge to support some 
policy or scheme. 

To recognize that Nature in its concrete perfection 
is a state unapproachable with a view of supersedure 
by the art of man, would be objective to the policy of 
maintaining an ideal supernatural state, but when this 
principle is carefully studied a logical conclusion can- 
not be successfully demonstrated. From a scientifical 
search nothing is discovered to supersede Nature. 
The great mass of even cultivated humanity have no 
distinct comprehension of scientific terms, for that 
reason they are easily led by any system that presents 
an advantage of material aggrandizement. Hence a 
political rendering of the Scripture is more attractive 
in comparison to the invisible virtue that submits in 
humiliation, it having no attractive feature. Virtue 
therefore appears crude in its natural state, at a great 
disadvantage against the advantage of cultivation. 
That this is a matter of personal opinion is of slight 
importance to the essential fact that Truth and virtue 
relate to states of perfection that are not effected by 
opinion or culture. That is, a state of perfection is not 
a cultivatable principle, it does not rest upon human 
assertion, it is only necessary to realize that perfection 
is the first sense of consciousness that is revealed to a 
human being — virtue incarnate. 

Political economy seeking to co-operate with natu- 
ral economy presents a worthy motive. It also en- 
counters a difficulty of understanding between the 
natural language and the artificial. If it is strictly 



HUMAN EQUITY 1 65 

held that the advantage of cultivation is confined to 
artificial language a co-operation with the natural 
would be as impossible as to establish an artificial 
system of perpetual motion. Energy as an entity of 
perfection is certainly a virtue ; and to be such it 
could scarcely be objected to that it was also natural. 
The effort therefore of establishing a so-existing rela- 
tion between the natural and the artificial, it must be 
admitted that the natural predominates over the arti- 
ficial in whatever sense a co-existence can be compre- 
hended by any cultivated state of human understand- 
ing. To assert that the artificial in the form of letters 
or written language could by any system of cultivation 
supersede the natural, it would have to rest with the 
privilege of the assertion, for its relation to Truth and 
Virtue would be as distinctly absent as a shadow in 
the absence of an object to obstruct the continuity of 
Light. 

To maintain a dogma of a super-natural condition is 
a policy of collective authority, the principle relating 
to conduct between man and man either socially or 
commercially confined to civil condition, strictly dis- 
tinct from any authority over the Spiritual. This does 
not depend upon a theory or an assertion because it 
is the absolute Truth, as such it cannot be superseded 
by a super-natural condition depending upon the theo- 
retical aided by militant power to sustain. Before a 
super-natural can become a universal conviction to 
protect the advantage of cultivation Spiritual facts 
must be destroyed by political dogmas. To maintain 
an advantage of one man over another is impossible 
from a Spiritual point of view ; it is limited to materi- 
alism and whatever relation such an advantage is to 



l66 HUMAN EQUITY 

the principle of Christianity, it can only be maintained 
by the assumption of a political supervision over the 
Spiritual. To maintain any moral right to an advan- 
tage of one man over another by reason of cultivation 
is either un-Christian or the Scriptures have no Spir- 
itual significance whatever. That the principle of cul- 
tivation can transcend the Spirit revelation that the 
Scriptures record in perfect unison with personal ex- 
perience, it would be analogous to a condition of per- 
petual slavery. To be an absolute moral right to ex- 
ercise an authority that a cultivated advantage might 
permit the freedom to obtain such an advantage would 
be a myth as well as the most vague sentiments of 
what pertains to personal liberty. That is, if the 
"super-natural" is as absolute as the natural, the rela- 
tion between man would be equally absolute, practi- 
cally ignoring any relation whatever between Spirit 
and man individually since it would be absolutely con- 
trolled by political permission. 

Because a child can be trained as well as brilliantly 
cultivated, to believe in politico-materialism is self- 
evidence of the un-Christian character of the principle. 
The responsibility does not rest with the person who 
has been misled to a condition of sincere belief, but 
the political effort so constantly exerted to maintain a 
material advantage over the natural and Spiritual, is 
a moral condemnation by reason of the necessity for 
such exertion. The invisible character of activity 
identical with energy, the very Spirit that moves 
every atom of substance, is surely above any applica- 
tion of man, which as strictly depends upon this en- 
ergy as every material atom does for its slightest 
movement. Man collectively can decree, condemn, 



HUMAN EQUITY I 67 

and formulate any method of cultivation that presents 
the greatest material advantage; but the fact would 
still remain that the energy employed collectively is 
only a greater volume to that which is equally as 
Spiritual in the individual person. The argument of 
accommodations and social requirements will never 
establish a privilege of the moral indifference of col- 
lective strength, that does not as religiously apply to 
the individual person, however weak he may be. That 
is, collective strength with the power to enforce its de- 
cree in disregard of the Spiritual authority latent in 
the unborn seed of humanity will continue to be as 
futile as to make a stone breathe. 

To so interpret the Scriptures to give an appear- 
ance of justification for the dogma of advantage ac- 
cruing to the art of cultivation, is to outdo the pagans 
in their efforts to materialize spirits. Because Spiritual 
communion is so strictly confined to the individual 
person, it is the merest delusion that collective 
strength is invulnerable. A careful retrospect of his- 
tory will not warrant such a weak conclusion, for to 
recognize that human virtue is preserved in the seed, 
makes the advantage of cultivation from a moral 
standpoint absurd. On the other hand, if human vir- 
tue depends upon cultivation to be developed from the 
seed, the political contents of the past to maintain ma- 
terial advantage would have destroyed every vestige 
of human seed. 

That cultivation, learning, and education, has no 
particular sphere of action is not the point involved, 
when the communion of Spirit so directly and exclu- 
sively concerns individual person. It is the effort of 
a subsiding authority seeking to control the Spiritual 



1 68 HUMAN EQUITY 

energy, by means of collective strength, that intimi- 
dates the credulous to a degree of abject submission, 
to such extent even that the Spiritual relation of man 
is exchanged for material advantage. Education as a 
means of assistence to develop or lead forth the natu- 
ral intelligence is counterbalanced, since it is pre- 
tended by political astuteness to "up-lift" the masses 
while the very term "up-lift" is rtot only scientifically 
impossible but Spiritually also. That the uplifting 
process is a mere disguise apparent to anyone who 
has sufficient sense to see the light or feel the heat of 
energy. It will not, however, deter a person seeking 
a material advantage over Spiritual reality, for with 
that end in view he could not be consistent in striv- 
ing to "up-lift" the very object over which he was at 
the same time seeking to obtain an advantage. The 
very fact that Spiritual freedom is so strictly confined 
to the individual person, makes slavery and oppres- 
sion possible, for he would be free, can only be such 
by making the effort himself, rather than seeking an 
advantage over others. 



HUMAN EQUITY 169 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE DISPOSITION TO COMMAND. 

THE individual obligation to society is exactly 
what the obligation of society is to the individual. 
What signifies a disposition to command relates to 
the infallible principle of Nature in the sense that 
progress would be impossible in the absence of an in- 
centive to command, equivalent to an ambition to do 
something a little more conspicuous than what had 
ever occurred before. The embalmed moralist pre- 
sents a commanding attitude that casts no reproach 
upon moral integrity. It represents a perfect product, 
not unlike ripe fruit, a conserved orthodoxy of perfec- 
tion within itself, but human progress commands the 
situation beyond the sterility of absolute perfection. 

It would make but slight demand upon one's 
thoughts to recognize that a strict condition of per- 
fection would bind the human race into a solid mass 
of inaction, allowing even that the mass was endowed 
with sufficient sense to recognize a disposition to 
command, yet in the absence of space to make the com- 
mand effective, the disposition itself would be absurd. 
In whatever form progress relates to the ability for 
one man to command another, the primary features 
are motion, the energy to move things and the space 
which moving objects could occupy. 

From a generic principle it is of the first import- 



I JO HUMAN EQUITY 

ance to observe that whatever man affects, this pri- 
mordial principle of motion (something moving) es- 
tablishes a base upon which even the most vague spec- 
ulation must necessarily depend. It so definitely 
points to all that a person can comprehend, signified 
by the term Nature, that it can be no less than the 
Truth even if it is but a small part of the whole. From 
a standpoint of human equity and Spiritual infinity, 
the disposition to command with the inspiration to 
progress are as fixed as infinity itself. Thus any effect 
as the result of the activity of individual man in divers 
directions presents a distinction of great importance, 
as compared with what is directly concerned by the 
immediate action of Nature. That this effect as a re- 
sult of the same energy that Nature reserves for her- 
self to exert upon otherwise sterile matter, would nat- 
urally tend to puff a human being to a point of ex- 
treme overbearance. It is not necessary to examine 
all the successes and failures that are amply recorded 
as a testimonial of man's conduct, that brutes of the 
lowest order would shrink from. Neither would it 
avail much to seek an explanation for what appears to 
be an undue freedom bestowed upon the lowest order 
of mankind, since the disposition to command, how- 
ever weak, is no less conspicuous. This feature alone 
reflects a rebuke upon the theoretical dogma of the 
ancient that "might was right ;" it survives to the pres- 
ent day in the modernized term, "the survival of the 
fittest," besides the term "higher criticism" stretches 
its neck to a commanding elevation. It all goes to 
show that the ability of individual man cannot reach 
a commanding height of importance above what he is 
willing to assert of himself. To be candid and friendly 



HUMAN EQUITY I7I 

about such a delicate situation as self-esteem, it could 
be somewhat neutralized by recognizing it was a natu- 
ral disposition, without which humanity would be as 
irresponsible as the animal for his conduct. 

To recognize human equity in connection with this 
natural disposition to command, is where the rub 
comes. It presents intellectual exercise that cannot be 
other than beneficial, but there is no substantial evi- 
dence that the natural situation is changed an atom. 
Men have tried to brush away philosophical and sci- 
entific facts by stigmatic terms too numerous to men- 
tion, yet the point remains as sharp as ever ; it pricks 
through every effort to cover it, simply because what 
is not the Truth has a mere temporal existence. 

To separate the Spiritual or active feature from the 
material, presents a discordance seriously disturbing 
mutual understanding. To admit that natural sim- 
plicity of communication possessed the genetic prin- 
ciple of Spiritual Knowledge, any collective body that 
could command an obedience by reason of material 
strength to maintain its polity, would destroy it by 
admitting such a simple proposition. The Truth 
would not be considered since to preserve the polity 
would command the principle attention. When the 
mind is fully occupied with abstractions, generalities 
appear vague. It is therefore of the greatest import- 
ance for any political institution to maintain a 
specific category of abstracts for the purpose of 
commanding the situation thus established. To a 
person more interested in recognizing the Truth 
pure and simple — an uncompromising generality — 
than seeking to conserve abstracts, it would be well to 
observe that the political advantage of imparting ab- 



1^2 HUMAN EQUITY 

stracts to the mind of youth is an inheritance from 
the pagans. 

It is not necessary to assume a position of judg- 
ment upon the freedom of thought or to pose as a 
prophet, for a person holding an approaching senti- 
ment of imparting abstracts to counteract the natural 
influence of generalities would be a self-conviction by 
the act itself. Mere words could neither apologize or 
judge another objectively for a polity to sustain which 
would have to be consciously realized before such an 
objection to a natural Truth could be offered. It pre- 
sents a generality so definitely relating to the Spiritual, 
that it could only be experienced to be realized. The 
ideal effort to maintain a materialization of the soul 
which is given a distinction from Spirit by employing 
two words relating to One invisible entity. That this 
principle is universally known is evidenced by the po- 
litical effort to maintain a system of teaching abstracts 
to so occupy the mind as to practically cripple the 
Spiritual individuality of Person, that is, the effective- 
ness of Person to combat against collective organiza- 
tion. Any policy, however, of infringing upon Spirit- 
ual authority, is constantly being modified by the di- 
viding and sub-dividing of collective organizations. 
It presents the common maxim of "institutional lib- 
erty," itself a mere abstract of individual liberty. 

To recognize that individual liberty is equally as po- 
tent as institutional liberty immediately involves the 
relation between materialism and the Spiritual. The 
political is universally admitted to be the science of 
government, an abstract principle, however, derived 
from the natural entity of human progress. Whatever 
perfidy or duplicity becomes attached to any system 



HUMAN EQUITY I 73 

of government reflects a responsibility upon the body 
politic which in reality constitutes the governing 
power. It would be a mere figure of speech to include 
the entire adult people of any nation in a body poli- 
tic, for the simple reason that a separation other than 
a limited divorce tentatively, has never been practiced, 
despite the fact that multitudes of ideal precepts have 
been presented. 

The paradoxical feature of the relation between the 
Spiritual and materialism will have to be reckoned 
with, in connection also with the natural disposition 
to command, a feature of birth, (it is assumed that 
this is generally recognized). This feature of com- 
mand can never be eradicated by the political substi- 
tution of obedience, for the reason again that human- 
ity in distinction from the natural animal, has a uni- 
versal title directly revealed, to progress. The feature 
of command is due to the free title, strictly account- 
able to the Spiritual government, from which all col- 
lective systems of a governing character are abstrac- 
tions, having no Spiritual power by reason cf collec- 
tive strength to command a single atom of substance. 

Progress means personal freedom or there is no ac- 
countability for individual conduct, beyond that of 
the lowest order of animals. Hence when abstract 
knowledge is imparted by political decree (sometimes 
forcibly) to practically exclude the natural directly 
revealed, it is not strange when such an example is 
constantly paraded before children, of one man striv- 
ing to command another, that the children even will 
endeavor to emulate the same principle. 

The relation of abstracts to the concrete, being 
analogous to the abstraction of art from Nature, casts 



174 HUMAN EQUITY 

a gleam of understanding amidst the ambiguity of 
words with delicate shades of meaning. For the pres- 
ent purpose it should be recognized that the policy of 
command as it relates to an individual's right to com- 
mand another is an abstract from which collective or 
political authority is also evolved. To recognize the 
importance of this word "abstract" it could be ob- 
served that it relates to an abstraction from some- 
thing having a real existence either as a subject or 
predicate. It would appear proper in considering the 
principle of a natural disposition to command that it 
occupied a position of real existence identical with 
Knowledge and consciousness. Thus it is not neces- 
sary to acquire affirmation from any external object 
since experience would be the reality, and whatever 
was acquired would be an abstract. To study the 
principle of command as a feature of direct revelation, 
whatever is abstracted from the principle should be 
treated on the same line as any abstractions. 

If it leads to a dangerous conclusion it would also 
disclose the fact that abstracts as a principle of wor- 
ship or exclusive devotion are always dangerous in 
proportion to the degree in which they are held to be 
above the reality from which they are abstracted. 
Nothing is more dangerous than to become confirmed 
in the policy of acquiring abstracts until reality was 
neglected entirely. That is, when the mind is fully 
occupied with abstract ideas, reality will not attract 
sufficient attention to counteract the dangerous influ- 
ence. The danger can be readily perceived, but the 
misleading influence of abstracts in the ascendency 
over reality will effect an error of judgment that noth- 
ing but experience can remedy. When abstracts com- 



HUMAN EQUITY I 75 

pletely occupy the mentality of a person, it is due to 
political diligence to practically command the person 
in the interest of some specific system. This feature 
of mutilating the natural faculties of the child in the 
interest of society, (it should be observed that any 
specific society is but an abstract of humanity) it 
would be a moral action, providing the welfare of the 
child was the object. Doubtless a good many people 
sincerely believe that the child's welfare is dependent 
upon what is imparted to it by influence and teaching. 
The political feature of which is in brief to teach a 
child the vague rudiments of obedience to so-called 
superior authority, leaving the moral feature to be 
contended with after the plastic mind of youth is fully 
occupied with abstract ideas largely drawn from pa- 
gan philosophy and ideal mythology instituted by 
political command in the remotest ages. The parent 
is more deceived by abstracts than the child, who de- 
pends upon parental love to feed its natural confi- 
dence. 

Severe political austerity in assuming authority 
over what it claims to be the mistakes of the direct 
Spiritual or natural authority appears to be an exter- 
nal victory over Nature, but this is only a delusion of 
the weak and timid, for the diligence of political ef- 
fort to mislead the credulous is unimpeachable evi- 
dence thai the welfare of the masses is being betrayed 
by the very diligence in clinging to pagan philosophy 
for the purpose of keeping acquired knowledge (an ab- 
stract) in the ascendency for the appearance at least 
that the Spiritual by virtue of abstract intelligence, is 
subordinate to the political. Collectively the political 
presents a strength that the timid shrink from in de- 



I76 HUMAN EQUITY 

spair, for the reason that the Spiritual authority is an 
individual principle, that can only be solved by the 
individual. This principle is thoroughly demon- 
strated by Christian philosophy in strict opposition to 
political authority and modern materialsm. 

To examine the disposition to command farther, 
its effect upon collective authority ; meaning the co- 
relation of social and political command over the indi- 
vidual disposition which, if it was not strctly innate, 
even collective authority and command would be im- 
possible. It could readily be seen that ideal belief 
could not possibly effect a change in the natural entity 
of the disposition to command, but in the application 
of this disposition beliefs could be as numerous as the 
individual person, it insures a continuity of progress 
simply by improved methods by whch human under- 
standing becomes more mutual. That this is the de- 
clared purpose of abstract society in its alliance with 
political authority, presents a situation of good inten- 
tions. A society seeking honestly to improve the wel- 
fare of the individual by submitting to the militant 
authority to enforce its commands, acknowledges the 
superior command of the political, exactly what a col- 
lective policy stands for. This incongruity of author- 
ity over individual conduct is a testimony distinctly 
in favor of individual man in his natural condition 
possessed with sensation Spiritually revealed to the in- 
nate functions of perception. No dogmatic objections 
to recognizing the perfection of natural man can affect 
the situation an atom. Even to acknowledge both the 
immediate and mediate communion of Spirit with in- 
dividual person, it does not necessarily permit of an 
exclusive collective body to impart the fact. It is 



HUMAN EQUITY I 77 

for the individual to determine whether the immediate 
revelation of Spirit is to be acknowledged as having 
a prior demand to obedience than the mediate revela- 
tion subordinate to political command. It is no denial 
of the objective revelation to recognize that the sub- 
jective always takes precedent over any political or 
collective command claiming a supervision over the 
mediate revelation. That is, because Spiritual revela- 
tion is necessarily an individual fact, it does not en- 
tail the privilege of command or obedience relative to 
whatever objective revelation that in reason others 
received also. 

The confusion of understanding between man and 
man is confined to the alliance of society and political 
institutions. While society is composed of Spiritual 
units it asserts itself to be an improving influence 
over the political, but as long as they work together 
for a common end which is materialistic, the political 
pretence of protecting society is only to obtain its 
support, each striving to command the other. The in- 
equality of interests should be apparent to the ordi- 
nary thinker, because political authority includes the 
ability to enforce its commands. 

Any society failing to recognize the Spiritual inde- 
pendence of the individual, will direct its attention to 
material acquirements or political preferment. To 
command the individual by collective strength is a 
cultivated conviction, but from a logical point of view, 
no collection of abstracts can successfully command 
the reality from which they are abstracted. That is, 
the unit of society is in possession of the natural dis- 
position to command. To prevent this principle by 
extending it to a privilege of commanding others, has 



I78 HUMAN EQUITY 

been the experiment of ages with only temporal suc- 
cess, the relation between Spiritual authority and po- 
litical authority always remaining the same. 

In view therefore, of the example of social conduct, 
the moral right of society as such, to command an in- 
dividual obedience, could be studied with a view to 
the inconsistencies of collective bodies, employing ma- 
terial strength to enforce a system of imparting ab- 
stract knowledge with the intent of improving human 
conduct to establish a better moral respect for each 
other. If society cannot present an example of im- 
provement to the individual, natural morality will as- 
sert itself by direct authority revealed to the individ- 
ual rather than what is imparted by abstract influ- 
ences. 

Self-control is a recognized feature of training after 
the mind has been filled with materialistic expecta- 
tions, making the training difficult and doubtful 
Hence when it is recognized that the disposition ta 
command is an innate revelation to the individual 
from which source self-control is possible, its identity 
to the disposition to command could be discovered to 
be the original, of which self-control was only the ab- 
stract copy. To apply the natural power of command 
to one's self, the impossibility of commanding others 
from a Spiritual point of view, would become more 
apparent as experience was recognized to be the only 
Spiritual principle by which the Knowledge could be 
obtained. 



HUMAN EQUITY I 79 



CHAPTER XX. 



SOMETHING FOR NOTHING. 



THERE are elements of what could be termed 
common property without infringing upon the 
rights of others in an equity practically establishing 
the fundamental principle of freedom, not, however, 
an acquired freedom, for if freedom was a principle 
to be acquired, it would contradict the very essence 
of freedom. Freedom is the first conception estab- 
lished by the perception of an object, of which the sub- 
ject comes in contact. The important feature is, to 
give Nature a credit of supremacy over what is ac- 
quired. The policy of teaching a child that it acquires 
its freedom is not only unjust to Nature but to the 
child also. The Truth is not a principle to be changed 
by intellectual edict or political decree. An honest 
recognition of natural supremacy over the political or 
dogmatic would extend the privilege of acquirements 
rather than contract it. The fact that air, water, and 
heat are the essential elements of human existence 
over which no objective authority by political decree 
can establish itself, is evidence that Nature is supreme 
over any policy that man has ever inaugurated. Also 
that freedom in its first conception is something for 
nothing. 

However absurd it may appear to a person after be- 
coming convinced that freedom is acquired rather than 



l8o HUMAN EQUITY 

revealed by natural conception, there is plenty of evi- 
dence that personal control of one's conduct includes 
the privilege of acquiring something for nothing. 
That is, when it is considered that conduct is an effect 
of freedom, no vagary of man could be more absurd 
than to condemn the very principle by which means 
he could break the "Golden Rule" and benefit himself 
at the expense of his fellow men. The difference, 
therefore, between the natural and the acquired 
method, should be morally accounted for, before any 
effort to supplant the supremacy of Nature could be 
honestly supported. 

This simple principle of something for nothing has 
furnished the polemical disposition of man with suffi- 
cient exertion to have provided all his needs with such 
luxuries as he might be willing to earn honestly. It 
would appear that man's ambition to progress ex- 
ceeded his disposition to be honest, but a careful 
study of the situation would prove the contrary, for a 
defenceless child since time memorial has never been 
considered to be a party to facts in its own defence. 
It has always been considered of more importance to 
protect society than to protect the infant from the 
calumny of being a dependent creature, in a sense, 
more dependent than the young of animals are upon 
their parents. If it were absolutely true there would 
be no necessity of trying to deceive the child as soon 
as it reached the age of understanding This feature, 
therefore, of trying to supersede Nature by abstract 
intelligence should be interesting to anyone having 
respect for the Truth for the sake of the Truth, in 
addition to a moral duty to be honest to the babe 
even if the disposition to acquire something for noth- 



HUMAN EQUITY l8l 

ing could not always be successfully resisted. That 
is, in the effort to compromise Nature to shield the 
guilty party. A person with a sincere belief has no 
accountability, as an accomplice, for a condition of 
which he or she is the victim. If a dogma is held to 
as a mere habit of imitation, or by virtue of training 
it is important to consider the wide difference between 
what is revealed and what is acquired. Even if it is 
claimed that whatever is revealed is identical to that 
which is acquired, the Spiritual and natural are not 
controlled by such a decision. 

Scholars may believe themselves learned by virtue 
of what they may have acquired and also recognized 
as such by institutional decree ; if they are not suffi- 
ciently honest, or moral, to practice and admit what 
they know to be the Truth their learning obstructs 
civilization more than such acquirements promote it. 
That this principle can be dodged by the literal ability 
to distort words including the familiar phrase, "we 
know it," does not dispose of the proposition, whether 
human intelligence is immediately revealed or medi- 
ately acquired. The effect of teaching cannot react 
upon the source from which the effect is derived. 
Neither does abstract reasoning effect the situation 
other than to compromise the immediate demand, like 
patching a dam that is destined, in reason, to burst. 
The point is, the Truth is revealed to babes and what 
is acquired is an effect relating to the conduct of man. 
For an individual person in denying his own pres- 
ence. That "we know it," does not apologize for the 
lack of courage to admit it. "Higher criticism" can 
pour out a flood of abstracts to the end of time in de- 
fence of the dominating influence of acquirements, 



I 82 HUMAN EQUITY 

"but, is it true rather than who said it was true?" is 
the proposition for scholars to shrink from in silence 
or admit what they know to be a fact? That is, that 
natural intelligence as a general principle revealed to 
&**. unit of humanity has never ben superseded by 
its effect or the general principle of acquirements 
since the beginning of time. 

Philosophy and science has tried to reconcile this 
difference between revelation and acquirements which 
appears to justify the conduct of man in appropriating 
whatever advantage his acquired intelligence permits. 
That this is a disrepect to natural freedom is the 
point for the individual to consider. That is, whether 
personal freedom that costs no effort, which is some- 
thing for nothing, can be in justice employed to de- 
prive another of an equal opportunity. To offer an 
excuse of ideal speculation that the natural man or in- 
fant could not be trusted individually with the free- 
dom of natural intelligence, of which man collectively 
can deprive the individual. That this is a usurpation 
of physical strength to even attempt to deprive a de- 
fenceless child of its Spiritual freedom to simply ex- 
ist, shows that man grows more unworthy of trust 
in proportion to his effort to elevate acquired ability 
above the natural. When it can be so readily observed 
how tenaciously one clings to an acquirement with 
the grip of greed, it is evidence at least that the in- 
telligence directly revealed is more virtuous than the 
effect which is acquired. 

Abstract reasons may be as numerous as the atoms 
of the earth, to justify a person in holding to the 
theory of acquirements superseding the Spiritual, but 
the fact that the reasons are abstractions is what the 



HUMAN EQUITY I 83 

child dwells upon in the weakness of its mind. Mem- 
ory and observation conduct a system of reasoning 
related to experience which are akin to direct revela- 
tion. It should be observed, however, that experience 
is not acquired, whether the precept is necessary to 
the maintaining of abstract reasons are considered 
good evidence in defence of the theory that acquired 
ability as such, rules or transmits the Spiritual, the 
simplest form of natural reasoning is entitled to self- 
defence on the same lines that the abstract reasoner 
offers in excuse for defending the ruling power of ac- 
quirements; to protect which objective authority in 
its effort at self-defence is always compelled to re- 
treat in the march of progress, commanded by the or- 
der of Nature, a principle that never surrenders to the 
conduct of man. 

To prove whether revelation is acquired or imparted, 
personal experience becomes involved, also natural 
freedom in opposition to acquired freedom. It can 
readily be admitted that the infant is defenceless and 
subject to objective authority, but to assert that the 
experience of the infant is acquired would introduce 
a condition over which personality is supreme. What 
experience really means is a personal option, that can 
be as readily determined after experiences become 
numerous as when the first conception of light was 
revealed to an innate existence, or a proper receptacle 
for the light; otherwise human understanding would 
not have responded to what it received. That this 
personal test can be presented in such a manner as to 
convict whoever attempts to object to direct revela- 
tion, it would be a possibility to anyone with courage 
enough to admit a reverence for natural freedom. 



184 HUMAN EQUITY 

Anyone can determine whether experience is 
knowledge and consequently the Truth, or whether 
it is objectively acquired. Neither a positive or nega- 
tive assertion can effect what experience reveals, 
therefore revealed Truth does not rest upon assertion, 
but instead upon personal option, to either accept the 
Truth that costs nothing other than the decision. Ex- 
perience will reveal the difficulty of serving two mas- 
ters, besides it is simple to observe that its principle 
authority is derived from a continuity of revelations, 
hence if reason possesses any virtue at all, each indi- 
vidual experience presents a Spiritual communion 
from first to last. It establishes an evidence over 
which the individual person is sole judge. 

The dogmatic controversy over this principle in the 
past leading to the strife between the civil and cleri- 
cal factions which has at various periods deluged the 
earth with blood in proportion to the influence of 
each in persuading or compelling the people to sup- 
port it. The disposition to progress is determined by 
private judgment developed by experience, yet civil 
and political authority has vainly striven to supervise 
or obstruct the least suggestion of progress. It is 
simple enough to formulate ideal methods of passive 
harmony, but the conduct of man is a feature that 
cannot be controlled by any policy, or civil authority 
confined to physical strength. It is simple again from 
a reasonable point of view, because man, however 
able he may be, will not practice as a rule what he 
preaches, the reason for this state of things is also 
obvious enough, but political greed at the present 
time will not tolerate any individual opposition any 
more than it would in the Dark Ages. 



HUMAN EQUITY I 85 

To take an advantage of the immature infant is 
parallel to the tyrannical disposition of man as re- 
corded in history, by which means any undeveloped 
race was forced into slavery including women of 
every race. This disposition to take advantage of the 
defenceless was not revealed, it was acquired for the 
following reasons : Revelation was common to the en- 
tire human race for the reason that experience is self- 
consciousness, determined by anyone who can see, 
feel, hear, smell, and taste. The proof is as positive 
as birth and the consciousness that follows. Revela- 
tion relating to experience symbolizes conscious ex- 
istence, established before the ability to distort words 
was acquired ; for that reason revelation could not re- 
late to any principle more important than to experi- 
ence existence, since to exist was the only condition 
to which revelation could apply. Therefore to acquire 
existence would be a meaningless term. It follows 
that experience is not only revelation but the only 
method by which knowledge or a communion with 
God was ever attainable. Another potent reason why 
knowledge and experience cannot be acquired is, that 
the ability to distort words is acquired, while revela- 
tion is the Truth having no need for distorted words 
to maintain its eternal entity. The fastidious objector 
in persistent defence of materialism, having a stronger 
desire to obtain something for nothing, than to ac- 
knowledge the Truth, would demand an explanation 
of what caused existence, before he would consent to 
believe that Knowledge and experience was a direct 
revelation for which the individual was in no sense 
obligated to any mediate authority. Moral integrity 
would be involved on the side of a direct revelation, 



I 86 HUMAN EQUITY 

since to know God would be to love Him, and cast no 
shadow of reproach in opposition to His absolute 
authority. To deny this principle in the first person 
by reason of one man assuming the right to judge an- 
other, until his questions could be answered on de- 
mand satisfactory, would be a self-conviction that no 
judgment except the final judgment could reach. 

Is not existence and the sense by which the exist- 
ence is conceived sufficient proof that God is not ob- 
jective to a principle which would be necessary to 
learn from an abstraction of the principle known? 
Hence if one man claims to believe more than another 
knows by experience, by reason of a more thorough 
understanding of literature, such a person should at 
least be willing to explain why it was necessary to 
distort words of which he appeared familiar, for the 
purpose of proving that it was possible to believe 
more than the Truth revealed? If man can acquire 
more abstractly than he can attain directly, to the ex- 
tent of commanding others to acknowledge his su- 
perior belief, he could as readily extend a belief to a 
visible reality, as to cast a reproach upon personal 
human equity to the common revelation of conscious- 
ness. 

The conduct of man in his ability to manipulate ab- 
stracts is not so remarkable as the uniformity of 
Spiritual activity which could be depended upon with 
more confidence than could be extended to man who 
is constantly engaged in acquiring something for 
nothing. The most successful method has always 
been to maintain a belief in a mysterious God since 
the only mystery is confined to the relations between 
man and man of which, conduct is the most mysteri- 



HUMAN EQUITY I 87 

ous. The constant seeking of something for nothing 
or to acquire the most for the least exertion, is a situ- 
ation that encourages a belief in greater expectations. 

The visible parade of material acquirements estab- 
lishes a "pitfall" of misunderstanding that only a few- 
have attempted to explain, and fewer yet who have 
had moral courage enough to publicly sacrifice ma- 
terial acquirements at the silent command of Spiritual 
duty. If moral integrity is crucified in the flesh to 
support the panegyric laudation that attracts attention 
by the sound of trumpets, the temptation to worship 
the acquired ability of the orator as a visible effect 
more notable, since the invisible Spirit in the subject 
was no less worthy in the flesh by reason of invisible 
ability, as much so before the effect was visible, as 
after. The material relation to the Spiritual is an im- 
portant feature to effect a visible perception, but the 
fact of what is visible in the first person is invisible 
in the second, presents a comparative reason for a de- 
lusion in the mind of a third person, who might be 
seriously committed to the objective principle so care- 
fully maintained by ideal policy. The difference be- 
tween what is acquired and that which is conceived 
is a sacred privilege of personality which depends 
upon experience as much so as birth itself. To limit 
the experience of the second person appears to be the 
anxiety of every first person who parades his acquired 
ability as more elevated than the natural or what 
should be identical to the Spiritual. It betrays a self- 
ishness upon which the foundation of trade in ma- 
terial things is established. Also the exchange of 
ideas follows on the same lines. That is, when a per- 
son believes that acquirements of material property, 



I 88 HUMAN EQUITY 

including abstract knowledge (learning) controls the 
Spiritual or concrete, which could also be termed the 
natural, such a person will admonish another for at- 
tempting to disbelieve what has become so firmly 
crystalized. That this is the trend of abstract atten- 
tion in seeking constantly to obtain something for 
which nothing is offered in exchange, it does not effect 
the Spiritual revelation an atom. That is, the direct 
revelation from God (the natural) cannot be definitely 
obstructed by conduct that is strictly confined to the 
relation between man and man. 



HUMAN EQUITY I 89 



CHAPTER XXI. 

VAGUE ASSERTIONS. 

THE authority of man in whatever guise he pre- 
sents himself depends upon the potency of asser- 
tion. The effort to maintain a visible authority over 
the invisible gives to the conduct of man an assertive 
feature, the potency of which being strictly confined 
to materialism. Such a remarkable sentiment in com- 
mon use as "the mastery of Nature" implies a vague 
assertion. Regardless of the term being definitely set- 
tled by esoteric terminology, the consent of the invisi- 
ble feature of Nature as a party to the settlement, 
leaves the assertion unsettled from the Spiritual point 
of contention relating to direct revelation and its ab- 
stract transmission. 

To maintain an assertion with any degree of suc- 
cess the burden of proof rests with the person making 
the assertion. The mere reputation of a person may 
add strength to the assertion yet its vagueness would 
still represent the difference between the material and 
the energy by which it was moved. Because a child 
can be trained like an animal to perform at the com- 
mand of a man, it does not depend upon an assertion 
to condemn the practice. The responsibility rests 
upon Spiritual Knowledge; and for an adult person 
to act from a conviction of training, the general prin- 
ciple of Knowledge would be involved. The respon- 



I9O HUMAN EQUITY 

sibility of conduct cannot rest upon accommodation, 
in strict regard for the relation of Spiritual knowledge. 
That is, to deny the relation of man to a direct com- 
munion with Spirit upon a mere assertion for the pur- 
pose of introducing a medium of transmission, would 
be an accommodation in the interest of the assertion. 
To give the principle of revelation (practically expe- 
rience) a dual character, the accommodation would 
still be obvious. A distinction between immediate 
revelation and mediate revelation gives the principle a 
double character, which has always been a difficulty 
to overcome in seeking to prove an assertion, however 
eminent the source. When this effort of man to tran- 
scend Spiritual authority becomes so conspicuous 
that it can not be disguised without a resort to repre- 
hensible conduct, it rests with the promoters of moral 
precepts to determine for themselves whether they are 
influenced by selfish accommodations, or Spititual 
duty. 

An assertion has no moral standing that rests upon 
stigmatic reproach against an opposition. The Eng- 
lish language appears to have been carefully prepared 
to accommodate scurrilous respectability when as- 
serted in terms of refinement. To frighten children 
will always have the effect to commit them to a con- 
dition of passive obedience or stubborn defiance. It 
is not so much to determine which evil to choose as 
to consider the source of authority for failure to rec- 
ognize the moral perfection of Spiritual authority over 
the natural objects moved in such a harmony of con- 
duct that the most ingenious man has never been able 
to emulate. Regardless of the ever present effect of 
Spiritual supremacy, man will nourish a vain imagina- 



HUMAN EQUITY I9I 

tion that a vague assertion uttered by man is more 
commanding than the energy necessary to utter the 
command. 

It is no new discovery that the worst enemy man 
ever had has always been his individual conceit, but 
in the scurrilous assertions of innocence, ably con- 
ducted in superficial refinement, the innocent, igno- 
rant of defence, has been compelled to bear a stigma 
of servitude upon the mere assertion of man who is 
dependent upon abstract energy for every act he per- 
forms. The individual having a commanding presence 
would be a phenomenon in the absence of another to 
command. That is, obedience is subjection to objec- 
tive command. It is the relation of the individual to 
his own assertions that the present attention should 
be directed, unbiased by abstract thoughts, if possible. 
If the abstractions of the mind predominate over con- 
crete reality subjective obedience would be so com- 
plete that negative attention would be impossible ot 
equivalent to a conscious existence of the soul absent 
from the incarnate flesh. Man is not dependent upon 
the abstraction of literal transmission of thoughts to 
determine his faith in future possibilities. The ideal 
thought is a natural effect distinct from an abstract as- 
sertion or counter assertion in contradiction. The 
mere presence of a living babe does not represent a 
fact, but it is the fact, ipso facto. Whatever man's 
duty shall be toward civil or political authority the 
gulf between the Spiritual and civil is impassable, 
which constitutes the point of observation between a 
conscious fact and a vague assertion. Once this fact 
is comprehended by the individual freedom of thought 
including the absolute right of private judgment,, no 



I92 HUMAN EQUITY 

assertions of a mediate or abstract character can ob- 
struct the conviction an atom. 

The common objection to individual independence 
is the individual relation to society which brings to 
notice the relation of an assertion to a positive fact 
and its negative opposite. An assertion fortified by 
all the scientific experiments to elevate it to a level 
with the Truth that an assertion ever reached has al- 
ways exposed the fact that it was only an assertion. 
The study of social science could not be faithfully con- 
ducted without a settled conviction of the relation of 
vague assertions to the Truth. It is not necessary to 
admit that assertions are always vague, but it would 
be difficult to escape a counter assertion since they 
are always negative in their relation to the Truth, for 
that reason abstract learning bears only a representa- 
tive relation to the fact or Truth. It is important to 
have this principle impressed upon the mind before a 
distinction between Spiritual authority and its trans- 
mission between man and man can be established. To 
subscribe to representative authority is a complete 
surrender of natural revelation in the interest of so- 
cial prospects equally as unsettled as mere assertions. 

To counteract the development of individuality has 
been the policy of man since he discovered the potency 
of figures and letters to justify his fiat of divine au- 
thority, but the wickedness of the principle, in prac- 
tice, has kept the abstract learned apologizing and re- 
asserting themselves since letters were first discov- 
ered. To assert that society would be an immoral col- 
lection of barbarians has never been borne out by 
impartial history. The fact that assertions have never 
been verified by results in the absence of assertive 



HUMAN EQUITY I 93 

proof is a constant reflection upon the motive that 
prompts the assertion. Society has always been self- 
destructive in its conflict with individuality ; its efforts 
to transcend natural and Spiritual authority has al- 
ways been identical with some policy or scheme. 
From the individual point of view which has the merit 
of Truth rather than dependent upon assertion; for 
that reason the individual always in possession of nat- 
ural virtue can with more equanimity wait for the 
natural development of progress, since society hav~ 
ing to modify its assertions to prevent a destruction 
that history has always recorded to be inevitable. 

The persistent effort of society and its representa- 
tives to cling to abstracts and assertions, is the party 
that has to suffer the consequences of their own folly. 
It presents a situation over which assertions have no 
more effect than trying to obstruct the wind with 
feathers. What appears to be suffering objectively is 
a visible reality, but the suffering hidden from view 
by vague assertions, guided by vanity and conceit can 
only be imagined from individual experience. It ap- 
peals, therefore, to the individual in his private right 
of judgment to determine whether he is his own mas- 
ter from a Spiritual point of view or whether he shall 
surrender his personality and follow abstract ideas, 
none of which being more dangerous than assertions. 

If Society, of whatever distinction it may have 
reached by virtue of numbers or attractive influence, 
is more dependent upon vague assertions than it is 
upon the Truth, the sooner the individual takes up the 
study of abstracts and their relations to collective au- 
thority, the sooner society would be relieved of its 
burden of wickedness, which only grows heavier by 



194 HUMAN EQUITY 

every individual addition to its already crowded ranks. 

Any so-called truth that depends upon proof ; is a 
Spiritual proof that it is an abstract of the invisible 
Truth from which source everything that moves is 
but the abstract. It is scientifically absurd for an ab- 
stract to control that from which it is abstracted. 
Also the proof is yet in abeyance that collective au- 
thority has ever met with other than temporal suc- 
cess in its persistent effort to transcend Spiritual au- 
thority naturally revealed to the human race. The 
significance of what revelation means is its relation 
to the individual and what is vaguely asserted by an 
elevated degree of abstract learning. The extravagant 
effort that the elevated few have always made to 
maintain a dominating authority over the many is 
very inconsistent with a display of benevolence. 
Again, the assertion of rendering an assistance to the 
oppressed by denying them their natural right to a di- 
rect communion of Spirit which constitutes their 
greatest oppression, and substituting therefore an al- 
legiance to collective authority is equivalent to break- 
ing a child's legs and then teaching it an artificial 
method of walking. The person who yields to the in- 
fluence of abstract learning in the expectation of be- 
coming connected with the ruling authority becomes 
a finished product of artificial effort. That is, such a 
person is as innocent of the understanding of general 
principles as he was of his own birth. The responsi- 
bility rests with those who are able to monopolize an 
authority over a common inheritance to Spiritual en- 
ergy. 

Political astuteness presents the same evidence of 
monopoly as history records of the ancient necroman- 



HUMAN EQUITY 



195 



cers. The identity of these two methods should at- 
tract the attention of every thinking man who had 
courage enough to think privately even if he did not 
dare to admit it publicly. No freedom of any charac- 
ter was ever bestowed upon man by man. Whatever 
freedom that has ever developed it can be traced to in- 
dividual courage parallel to inventions and discov- 
eries. Collective bodies are thoroughly absorbed in 
conservatism, always ready like a sponge to absorb 
the individual or his product, but to recognize its de- 
pendence upon the individual it would deny the sole 
motive of its collectiveness. Spiritual relations being 
individual by virtue of direct revelation (vague asser- 
tions to the contrary notwithstanding), for if asser- 
tions were the Truth they would not be assertions. 
These observations present a reason why the individ- 
ual is always persecuted by collective bodies, yet the 
individual is a necessity to progress as much so as his 
individuality was a personal birth. 

Assertions and collective strength are the promo- 
ters and protector of materalism, as a necessity, in 
the sense, however, that nothing could fall in the ab- 
sence of a pit to fall into. 

Birth, revelation, experience, freedom, progress, and 
Christianity are identical terms because they all re- 
late to the Spiritual Truth from which vague asser- 
tions are abstracted. Collective authority is remark- 
able, but not contented with its natural limitation to 
material effects, including the conduct of man, it has 
always striven in vain to supervise Spiritual authority. 
It is confined to threatening decrees, of which it is 
powerless to execute beyond its material limitation. 
It cannot deprive the individual of his revealed title 



I96 HUMAN EQUITY 

to the freedom of existence. Collective authority- 
thrives best after individual courage has been crushed. 
Its greatest weakness in seeking to extend its author- 
ity over Spiritual energy is its fear of the units of 
which it is composed. It is a self-conviction more po- 
tent than words. 

Vague assertions are frequently indulged in by in- 
dividuals, more interested in collective support than 
courageous independence. To assert that "freedom 
is not license" is more remarkable as an exhibition of 
personal ability to distort words than presenting any 
feature of reality. A license is limited to collective 
authority to which some policy is always attached. 
Freedom and liberty is revealed by Spiritual authority 
beyond the necessity of a license executed by abstract 
pretensions. It suggests the anomaly of civil author- 
ity trying to usurp the supervision over the freedom 
of Christianity (matters of history). It would also 
suggest a civil license for the privilege of becoming a 
Christian. It shows the inconsistency of trying to wear 
gracefully the cast of superfluities of the pagans, for 
in the matter of words it should be observed that let- 
ters and words have never been successful beyond 
comparative instrumentality. 

The social condition can never improve without a 
just regard for what constitutes a Christian sacrifice. 
It could never occur by the consent or instigation of 
collective authority, for such authority constitutes an 
effect rather than a reservoir of means. The constant 
contention of collective bodies over the simplicity of 
Christianity is a reasonable proof of its individual nat- 
uralness. It certainly never could have survived the 
civil effort to usurp a supervision over it, had it not 



HUMAN EQUITY 



197 



been a natural religion both catholic and free. The 
effort to utilize the principle of Christian freedom to 
promote collective interests is the effort to amalga- 
mate two principles as distinctly apart as the Spirit- 
ual and civil. To bring these principles together is 
beyond the realm of mathematical science. Besides, 
the mere assertion of the science of logic is the near- 
est approach to the individual communion of Spirit 
that the ambition of man has ever reached. The psy- 
chologist even does not reach beyond what is known 
from individual consciousness. It is an admission of 
individual freedom that all the collective bodies on 
the earth cannot permanently obstruct. 

The simplicity of science is prohibited so far as the 
professional control of the esoteric chambers of ety- 
mology is concerned. The general contempt for in* 
dividual effort to develop natural intelligence or re- 
vealed knowledge of which the individual is the ex- 
clusive custodian, is a proof needing no assertion, 
that the tree of benevolence does not take root in 
chambers more devoted to secrecy than a simple rec- 
ognition of the Truth, a natural fact. There are only 
three principles from which abstracts can be derived 
— matter, motor, and space — all these circumstances 
are directly revealed. From the effect of revelation 
vague assertion develops followed by sub-effects. 
These sub-effects present the visible superfluities of 
existence, the superficial character of which leads to 
destruction "as sure as fate" (to use a familiar as- 
sertion for the purpose of emphasis). It was discov- 
ered before the Christian era that matter did not 
move, its application to the sub-transmission of revel- 
ation from man to man is important, from a scientific 



I98 HUMAN EQUITY 

point at least. Added to the point that the Truth does 
not require even the support of proof, the tentative 
effort to prove vague assertions becomes more re- 
markable for failure than the temporary success that 
is always superficial in relation to facts. 

The fact that matter does not move is so closely 
related to revelation and experience that it involves 
the individual will to admit it, or exercise the privi- 
lege of denial which involves another feature since 
the act would become an object of subjective percep- 
tion. That is, subjective perception cannot be con- 
trolled by an objective denial from which the subjec- 
tive power of perception can often perceive even 
more, reflecting upon the motive of an object in deny- 
ing a principle of the will equally as much a revela- 
tion to the subject as the object. It reflects an impos- 
sibility of the sub-transmission of revelations from a 
Spiritual standpoint. Besides the motive of objective 
subjugation cannot be so disguised but what the sub- 
ject involved can as readily perceive the motive as the 
objective denial. It is therefore of no consequence 
whether matter moves or is moved by an energy com- 
mon to all, while private judgment is a personal privi- 
lege that is not only an individual revelation but a 
reasonable supposition by virtue of perception that it 
is common to the race. 



HUMAN EQUITY I 99 



CHAPTER XXII. 



PARALYZED CONVICTIONS. 



FREEDOM is as dependent upon individual cour- 
age as the subject is upon space to develop mo- 
tion and growth. Selfishness is a natural necessity 
which is equally apparent in the affectation of benevo- 
lence. Beautiful precepts can be constructed with 
words, but to practice them the reality of life becomes 
a factor which insists upon recognition. Ideal pre- 
cepts, therefore, are like cobwebs to be brushed away 
by experience ; upon the destructions of which visible 
reality is acknowledged. 

Paralyzed convictions exclude even sentiment of 
progress. A material obstruction is a local event, it 
practically presents a situation co-ordinate with intel- 
lectual limitation. It presents a conviction of finality 
which repels even the influence of experience. Con- 
viction does not involve execution, it simply limits 
the intellectual circulation, the same as the blood is 
often obstructed when communication beyond the 
point of obstruction is severed. Egotism is more 
readily perceived than conceived, for that reason the 
influence of experience should be carefully studied, 
before a severe judgment should be hurled at objects 
betraying the limited extent of their conviction. 

Charity for the misfortune of others is the highest 
type of benevolence, but Spiritual benevolence should 



200 HUMAN EQUITY 

be instinctively separated from material benevolence. 
It is at this point, when the relation of words to Spirit- 
ual reality is involved with paralyzed convictions. 
While the physical relation to energy is well studied 
before a doctor could be recognized as such by legal 
examination, the person with orthodox convictions in 
strict accord with the rules of precedent including the 
ideal vivification of letters could become no less than 
paralyzed from the very facts of the case. It is there- 
fore of the first importance in view of a Spiritual 
benevolence toward others, to reserve judgment, of 
a private character, whenever it extended a fraction 
beyond actual experience. 

The individual character of experience is evaded by 
objective authority, so obviously a political design 
to mislead the subject, that the spontaneous character 
of experience is as distinctly individual as the principle 
of breathing. If by external process the will is sub- 
dued there was never any form of slavery, piracy, or 
murder more atrocious. Man proclaiming himself 
either individually or collectively, the instrument of 
God, should be equally as proficient in exponging from 
the records the story of his conduct. To apologize for 
evil as a means of promoting goodness, casts a blight 
upon intellectual authority, which suggest an account- 
ability to some superior power. If man is privileged 
to appropriate natural effects of a material character 
to institute collective authority over the individual 
babe ; for fear it will become troublesome to such 
collective interests, some apology is due to the babe 
for having the light of experience revealed to it with- 
out the least consideration of its consent. The in- 
consistency of usurping authority by virtue of intel- 



HUMAN EQUITY 201 

ligence that necessitated the subordination of the 
natural by substituting the effect of intelligence for 
intelligence proper ; is the attempt to control the spir- 
itual revelation by material strength. 

If it is mere ideal vagary to call attention to the 
outrages of collective bodies, such collective bodies 
should not be fearful of a simple individual, to the 
extent even that the will of the babe must be broken 
for fear it might grow to maturity before its natural 
intellect could be successfully paralyzed by abstract 
words. If this fear did not exist, there could be no 
logical reason of showing so much concern for the 
welfare of a simple individual who might from some 
natural freak decline to be smothered under a collec- 
tive blanket. Fear is a strong evidence of uncertainty. 
There must be a good many intelligent people who 
are not so completely smothered by abstract intelli- 
gence, since it appears doubtful whether they are con- 
ducting themselves by specific revelation or not. Any 
system of conducting abstract learning that had for 
its object the development of fear would not be suf- 
ficiently attractive to obtain voluntary followers. 

It presents a different phase of fear when it can be 
inculculated by political decree into the plastic mind 
of youth when there is no more voluntary consent 
involved than the advent of birth. 

Virtue could be viewed as a desirable feature of 
conviction, but it would embrace a state of ignorance 
so sterile that the most vigorous attraction objectively 
could not overcome the paralyzed condition. It would 
also be such an inoffensive state of innocence that no 
person could fear it, without betraying cowardice. It 
is this feature of fear which is always a contingency 



202 HUMAN EQUITY 

of some event of objective reality to which conscious- 
ness would be as perceptible to an external object 
as to the subject betraying fear. Allowing existence 
to be an infinite entity, the mere birth of an individ- 
ual could not be an addition to what was admitted to 
have previously existed. The point is that virtue and 
paralyzed convictions are identical. To extend the 
principle to ideal formation would be equivalent to 
exposing the continual duplicity of man by virtue of 
abstract intelligence seeking to master Nature by the 
ideal formation of invisible lines. 

Because a person lives in a state of physical health, 
that is, able to move about and attain a degree of 
superficial qualities, it excites the envy of others to 
whom the desire of emulation has been inculcated to 
a decree of intoxication; such qualities would not 
necessarily imply, neither would they exempt a per- 
son from being a perfect example of paralyzed con- 
victions. Conventional propriety would not permit of 
any personal reflections upon a subject so exclusively 
confined to private judgment. It is the general prin- 
ciple that is more seriously involved than to make 
the least attempt to disturb a person who can be no 
less than supremely contented with a condition that 
could not comprehend an explanation if the paralysis 
was absolute. If it was a situation of dissembling it 
would be unkind to call attention to circumstances 
that would have to be known to be comprehended. 

Private judgment is a principle that political effort 
has never been able to control. It also applies to col- 
lective effort to control the individual. If there was 
no pretension of a political character there would be 
no occasion to maintain a scheme to deprive a child 



HUMAN EQUITY 203 

of its natural rights, by the presumption of authority, 
which deceives the child in its youth. Authority con- 
ferred upon man by reason of superior intelligence 
(which would be false except for political chicane) 
for natural intelligence, is Spiritual intelligence, or 
political schemes would be paralyzed for the need of 
force to keep the schemes in active operation. 

In view of the natural privilege to private judgment 
or innate sense, including the individual mental 
faculty to think or construct ideal thoughts ; with 
such ability man could determine to what extent his 
convictions were paralyzed by objective influence. 
Further, if he concluded that his judgment was just 
as much his own to extend to some object, which his 
judgment indicated, to be deficient in ability to think, 
while there was no evidence of an absence of mental 
faculties, it would raise a question of opinion to which 
the object might have intelligence enough to realize 
he was party to the situation. It would certainly be 
interesting for a third person to determine which of 
the party was touched with paralyzed convictions. 

It need not concern a person who felt confidence in 
his personal judgment, to render a decision of con- 
tempt against the existence of such a condition as 
paralyzed convictions, since he was not called upon 
to deny it. To claim an extention of judgment beyond 
the intelligence naturally revealed, would involve the 
sub-intelligence inculcated by objective influence, 
prompted by political or collective authority. There 
would be no question of mental paralysis in a person 
who gave evidence of a superiority by reason of a 
super-abundance of book acquirements at the exclu- 
sion of respect for natural intelligence, identical to 
the Spiritual. 



204 HUMAN EQUITY 

It is the principle involved, touching the social de- 
bauchery in high places, also being eagerly sought by 
the lower strata. The ideal remedies for this well- 
known condition are poured out copiously in com- 
mercial literature and oral preaching; yet materialism 
appears to hold the principle attraction to which the 
attention touching the reforms of any evil can be 
held. There must be a reason for this state of things, 
for no person thinking upon the subject even indiffer- 
ently can possibly believe, for he must have some sense 
to be able to believe anything, that material authority, 
contingent upon political authority, can control the 
Spiritual from which every thing endowed with life 
is dependent. Since theocracy is becoming univer- 
sally unpopular, political pretensions become more 
and more a subject of suspicion. If it could be fully 
recognized that the immediate directing influence of 
God was gradually being withdrawn from civil govern- 
ment, so slowly as not to jar the convictions domin- 
ated by belief, inculcated into the plastic mind of 
youth, more to serve the interests of political economy 
than the welfare of the subject, it would cast a doubt 
whether God was ever connected with a directing in- 
fluence over the conduct of man beyond the direct 
revelation of which, birth and experience are the per- 
petual evidence. 

There is a mutual conviction of policy that pervades 
all collective bodies that are held together by a govern- 
ing principle. This is a concrete principle from which 
no collective body could take exceptions from the fact 
of vindictive opposition to each other. With all this 
inability to exemplify since the declared purpose was 
philanthropic, it would be the observation of the un- 
tutored child that the individual is doomed to serve 



HUMAN EQUITY 205 

collective interests eternally, by persuasion if possible, 
by force if necessary. With the throb of freedom, the 
first joy of the child, the spirit of freedom that the 
cat or dog can be observed to enjoy undisturbed, is 
crushed into a state of dispair, by the declaration in 
the presence of the child that all the beautiful things 
that it so readily observes is but the evidence of a 
wicked world of discipline as a preparatory step, to 
stimulate a hope for an invisible world, where wicked- 
ness would not be an object of attraction. 

To contend that a child cannot reason until it is 
permitted to, by the inculcation of abstract intelli- 
gence, is to admit that every vestige of childish 
memory had been eradicated by the substitution of 
paralyzed convictions in complete submission to col- 
lective authority. To the placid mind from which 
every throb of personal freedom had been eradicated, 
it would not take kindly to any radical departure 
from convictions so thoroughly confirmed by collec- 
tive authority to guard abstract society from the 
vagaries of individual naturalness. That individual 
freedom can only be obtained by a genuine sacrifice, 
is as old as the duration of time. That it is enhanced 
in proportion to the extent of the sacrifice, which is 
an inviolable individual privilege that no collective 
policy has power to control. 

The extreme limitation of collective authority 
(identical to the political) is to frighten the credulous 
into a condition of paralyzed convictions to make the 
victims serviceable at the command of the same collec- 
tive principle that would employ multitudes of pre- 
cepts, heralded by obsequious followers of the prin- 
ciple. It is not new that the credulous can be victim- 



206 HUMAN EQUITY 

ized since the hitsory of human bondage is ample evi- 
dence, but what is new, is the effort to effect the same 
end by a disguised method making it even more diffi- 
cult for the learned slave to escape than it was for the 
illiterate slave. He was at no time deprived of his 
natural intelligence, an effect that can only be accom- 
plished by the modern method which is to inculcate 
(by political decree) an obligation to a mediate auth- 
ority in derision of the immedate or natural, which 
must embrace the Spiritual, or Christianity would be 
included in the same contempt that a recognition of 
immediate authority would involve. 
The obsequious learned occupy the same relation to 
the scholarly learned as the snob does to aristocracy, 
or a politician to a statesman. When viewed from a 
moral or philanthropic point, it involves the individual 
since he would be forced to choose between self- con- 
demnation and his relation to whatever collective body 
he had surrendered his personality. That is, private 
judgment, with the freedom of thought would be the 
exclusive privilege of an individual to determine 
whether he was sincere in subscribing to a collective 
body for the purpose of aggregating material strength 
to deprive another of precisely the same Spiritual 
privileges that he considered to be his own secret 
right. It is this feature so strictly individual that 
makes even the scholarly learned accountable to their 
own conscience (the God within) for the justification 
of any method by which the plastic mind of youth 
may be moulded to a condition of modern slavery. 
The Truth is not changed by substituting a belief in 
political efficiency. Slaves were contented like chil- 
dren to obey any authority that truckled to material 



HUMAN EQUITY 207 

gratification. To take advantage of a weakness in 
which the subject is in no sense responsible, by sub- 
stituting objective influence, presents a system of 
slavery that can only be justified by trying to main- 
tain a fraud in pretending that a transmitted belief 
can be substituted for the revealed Truth. The pre- 
tension, obscure to the victim, could not be perpetrated 
if it was equally obscure to the person depending upon 
the principle to promote material gain or political 
preferment. 

The protection of society is a cloak, under which 
political astuteness is conducted to blind the senses 
of the obsequious learned. To maintain this state of 
things it is necessary for the secular learned to cling 
to pagan prerogatives to the effect of a political super- 
vision over Christianity, in conjunction with a trained 
belief that revealed knowledge depends upon media- 
tion. 

It is more in contempt for Christianity that secular 
learning of pagan origin, is necessary to expound it, 
than to promote the distribution of moral conduct. 
It is parallel to all religious effort of a political charac- 
ter in defending the amalgamation of pagan philoso- 
phy with Christian philosophy, to accomplish which, 
in fact, is as impossible as to substitute darkness for 
light. Temporarily the fraud can be maintained since 
the breaking of the wills of children by the consent 
of their frightened parents is possible. Frightened 
because they had been previously trained to believe 
that political authority was the mediator of Spiritual 
revelation. That is, when a person's convictions be- 
come paralyzed by abstract learning to the extent of 
a belief that a communion with God is only possible 



208 HUMAN EQUITY 

by mediation or by deputy, progress could be possible 
only from the innate inspiration of children to rebel 
from such political tyranny. Children who escape 
the political effort to compel an obedience to medita- 
ting or representative authority, represents the moral 
progress of the world, regardless of the paralyzed 
conviction to the contrary. It is a simple proposition 
of the individual will to choose between one's own 
immediate privilege to think himself or submit to the 
mediate method, which is always political, when a 
person's conviction could become so paralyzed that he 
would forget he was ever permitted to think himself. 



HUMAN EQUITY 2O9 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE EQUITY OF EXCHANGE. 

TO understand the impossibility of Spiritual ex- 
change is the first privilege of consciousness. In 
the absence of this understanding, exchange becomes 
a license regulated by collective authority which would 
have no tenure of power in the absence of some policy. 
It is of the first importance to realize that a license 
does not involve Spiritual revelation, it being confined 
to exchangeable things; and things should be under- 
stood to relate to substance or something material. 

It is detrimental to material interests to give much 
attention to Spiritual activity, for that reason the 
public can be misled by extravagant pretensions of 
assistance which constitutes the principle of exchange. 
Abstract learning ofTers the greatest attractions as 
a means of evading natural obligations. The natural 
desire for food can readily be taken advantage of by 
an unscrupulous person, to which could be added the 
mediocrity of people who accept and desire abstract 
learning as an accommodation with no unscrupulous 
intent. Such people think exactly what they were 
taught to think without giving any attention to the 
policy by which means they are frightened into sub- 
mission; practically to serve in exchange for informa- 
tion that would enable a person to obtain the necessi- 
ties of life by some unscrupulous policy. 



2IO HUMAN EQUITY 

The constant conflict between the material strength 
of collective bodies with the Spiritual endowment of 
the individual, presents a situation that the various 
methods of commerce depends. If man increased in 
flesh and blood becomes a corporal being, simple 
experience will disclose the fact that man in a state 
of perfection could gain nothing by exchanging his 
condition with another. It is therefore the prospect 
of some material gain that a person can be persuaded 
to surrender a natural endowment for the artificial 
product of others. If this principle was conducted 
upon the natural lines of progress there would be no 
breach of harmony, but individual experience and his- 
torical records show that man's relation to man was 
never trustworthy. 

An ideal possibility of equitable exchange presents 
the principle of hope as a beacon light, which con- 
tinues to illuminate human understanding. The effort 
to elevate material reward above Spiritual punish- 
ment has engaged the chronic literalist since human 
speech suggested a method by which ideas could be 
exchanged. The fact that the effort does not advance 
in the direction that man ever seeks to guide it, shows 
a motive of the guide to obtain a greater benefit for his 
effort than he who could be persuaded to exchange 
real value for one in prospect, instigated by pretence. 

The mere exchange of ideas would have no value 
other than the exercise of the mental faculties in the 
absence of the co-existence of Spirit and matter. This 
compact becomes a fact by virtue of individual con- 
sciousness. The point is, revelation is the Light by 
which organic personality is illuminated into con- 
sciousness. To exchange Light or Spirit with another 



HUMAN EQUITY 211 

individual can be denied or affirmed at the pleasure 
of whosoever could see by the same Light. The ab- 
surdity, however, of exchanging Light for Light 
would destroy the principle of exchange, because the 
attempt to exchange one state of perfection for an- 
other state equally perfect would not be an exchange 
when neither party to the transaction would gain or 
lose by the act. It would appear reasonable to con- 
clude that effects of a material character were the 
objects of exchange. Words, however, are so nega- 
tively accommodating that ideas (imagery of the 
mind) could be claimed to be exchangeable in con- 
tradiction to the inability of one man exchanging his 
Light for the Light of another. 

Light has no importance unless it strictly pertains 
to the One omnipotence of God ; it could not be an 
exchangeable principle without denying the mono- 
theism of Christianity and embracing polytheism. 
Exchange of ideas even would have no value unless 
the ideas could be comprehended. To recognize there- 
fore, that the Light of consciousness would be a neces- 
sity before a transmission of ideas could be effected it 
would have to rest upon the fiat of man and whoever 
could be persuaded to believe him. It would practi- 
cally amount to the exchange of a birthright to sat- 
isfy a material desire. 

To recognize that the principle of exchange was 
strictly confined to material things, it woudl throw a 
light upon the pretension of man in declaring a pur- 
pose of "uplifting" humanity which could only be 
accomplished in fact by the exercising of control over 
Spiritual authority. This effort of competition be- 
tween direct and indirect authority makes pretensions 



212 HUMAN EQUITY 

and wickedness possible. There is no better evidence 
that the exchange or transmission of direct revelation 
is impossible than the extravagant effort to exchange 
ideal pretensions for material facts, of which the cred- 
ulous multitude have a clear title, by virtue of 
natural existence. If there was a moral foundation 
in the exchange of pretensions for material facts, in- 
cluding the necessity for food, the uplifting of the mul- 
titude would be a means of self-protection against 
the ability of pretensions. If intentions were for the 
common good, fact, rather than pretensions, the com- 
mon good would be better served by preserving the 
credulity of natural man, rather than endangering a 
positive fact by encouraging a possibility that good 
intentions would find no market of exchange if they 
were discovered to be only pretensions. 

There is an order of commerce as inviolate as the 
individual communion of Spirit. It would be absurd 
from a moral standpoint, no less than stealing, to offer 
prospects in exchange for natural products immedi- 
ately needed to preserve the relation between Spirit 
and matter, so-called life, when it is a well-known fact 
of experience that conscious life is a Spiritual effect 
upon organic matter that no man has ever analyzed 
without betraying his pretensions. 

The immediate incarnate man continues to exist 
upon material facts in the form of heat engendered by 
material food to obtain which he will seek the course 
of least resistance. When might was considered to 
be right by the ancient economists, stealing and 
piracy were the medium of exchange, even law and 
order for the protection of society was conducted 
upon the same principle. It enabled the clergy 



HUMAN EQUITY 213 

(learned class) in connection with physical prowess 
to live in extravagant luxury. To justify this state of 
things it was of the first importance to formulate a 
protection against a common privilege to acquire arti- 
ficial or abstract learning. To maintain the preten- 
sion to a specific communion with God by virtue of 
abstract learning was a simple matter so far as the 
mass of humanity was concerned. It was necessary, 
however, to use collective force to protect established 
theosophy in constant conflict with a natural knowl- 
edge of God. Such philosophies as the Cynics and 
Stoics in defence of natural knowledge as an intrinsic 
authority over abstract learning could only be over- 
come by collective force and the exchange of preten- 
sions for natural facts. 

To this day the "super-natural" as a principle de- 
rived from ancient theosophy depends upon political 
or physical force in proportion to the willingness of 
credulity in exchanging natural facts for artificial pre- 
tensions. Before one person individually or collec- 
tively could offer a precept in exchange for a natural 
product, a moral obligation to the invisible force upon 
which the transaction depended would be involved. 
The literal ability to disguise the intent, would not 
transform a pretended assistance to another into a 
moral fact. It is a more serious matter than good in- 
tentions, for such intentions can be inculcated by po- 
litical decree. If by political astuteness the principle 
can maintain a transcendency, even by pretension, 
over the natural it establishes a dual allegiance, which 
to recognize could only be determined by the indi- 
vidual will. The fact that the will can be influenced 
by inculcating obligation of allegiance to some medi- 



2 14 HUMAN EQUITY 

ating authority, the direct relation with God would 
be transferred to the mediating influence offering the 
most attractive pretensions in exchange for natural 
products. It is the exchange of pretended influence 
over future prospects, for material facts to obtain 
which honestly, the direct relation between God and 
man would have to be recognized. 

At this point the "supernatural" feature of theology 
is essential to counteract negative efforts, in effect it 
established a fundamental equity between a positive 
and negative idea by adopting a general principle that 
could not be proved to exist, when it could not be dis- 
puted for the same reason. It established an alliance 
between policy and reality that so illuminated the abil- 
ity of Aristotle that he boldly declared he had discov- 
ered all the knowledge there was. That he was more 
devoted to policy than the development of moral con- 
duct, explains the reason why he would not recognize 
the intrinsic character of Knowledge and virtue in ac- 
cord with Socrates. His greatest feat was his meta- 
physical combination by which means he justified the 
condemnation of Socrates by exchanging moral recti- 
tude for the policy of pretence. He could not recon- 
cile political conduct with morality, for that reason 
he tried in vain to improve politics by making it a 
necessary mediator between God and man. 

To acknowledge a direct revelation bestowed upon 
every human being at birth would have anticipated 
the advent of Christianity and subjected him to the 
same relation to collective authority as befell Socra- 
tes. It would be idle to even pretend to criticize the 
private judgment of Aristotle, but from his learned 
ability it would appear evident that he held the same 



HUMAN EQUITY 215 

views as Socrates in regard to the direct relation of 
man to God. In the absence of moral courage to emu- 
late his predecessor he directed his ability to apologiz- 
ing for political iniquity from the apparent effort of 
making stealing respectable by apologizing for the 
necessity of a thief. 

To observe that a policy always exists in whatever 
form the principle of mediation takes, it also exposes 
the effort to exchange ideal pretensions for substan- 
tial reality. The direct communion of man with God 
is the point involved in the continual effort to ex- 
change ideal speculations for necessary facts. Ignor- 
ance and credulity are the absolute essentials for a 
successful exchange of pretensions for reality. It 
would be absurd for a pretender to admit it at the 
same time he was negotiating for an object of reality. 
It therefore verifies the sanctity of private judgment 
no less than direct revelation in opposition to the in- 
direct. The latter method involving a policy of pre- 
tension ; it being optional with the individual in a nor- 
mal state of the will, whether to exchange reality for 
attractive expectations. Whatever choice the indi- 
vidual made, it would not in any sense effect the indi- 
vidual obligation to direct revelation, the point in- 
volved. 

To maintain a consistent theory of its being a moral 
right to transmit Spiritual revelation relatively from 
man to man in contradiction to the direct involved in 
individual experience, Nature must be debased by 
the fiat of man in connection with the political con- 
trol of the literal transmission of experience, the most 
potential feature of direct revelation. It is the weapon 
of the skeptic and the agnostic against dogmatic reli- 



2l6 HUMAN EQUITY 

gion applied to Christianity from a policy of collective 
authority, in turn derived from pagan politics in the 
vain effort to compel the subordination of the many 
to the absolute authority of the few. The pretension 
of a divine right of the few to dominate the many is 
the reason for the strenuous effort to debase Nature 
sentimentally by the religious teacher and secular 
learned skeptic, both in opposition from a moral 
standpoint, united, however, in maintaining a mediat- 
ing authority for fear the many will discover that the 
interpretation of the Scriptures (literal revelation) is 
just as much the privilege of the individual as any col- 
lective body. The pretension of "uplifting" humanity 
would imply a disregard for Nature, hence the senti- 
mental effort to debase her. 

A disregard for the Truth would be an immoral act. 
Thus whatever is known to be infinite Truth by per- 
sonal experience and direct reflection relative to it, 
presents a knowledge of Spiritual effect; to be less 
than the Truth, it would make the seeking of the 
Truth a pretension after the direct revelation of light 
was conceived unsought. If such a fact is not reve- 
lation there is no significance to the term. The words 
"God, Nature, Truth, Knowledge and Experience" re- 
late to an unteachable principle — revelation — or they 
rest upon a vague foundation of sand. Revelation and 
Truth are cardinal principles, the very attempt to 
prove them to be such would be only a pretence, pre- 
senting the fundamental principle of evil. Why peo- 
ple do not practice such a simple formula of moral 
integrity is because they can be persuaded by politi- 
cal chicane, the very essence of mediating authority, 
that material reward is the evidence of immunity from 
sin, while visible suffering is due to an unwllingness 



HUMAN EQUITY 217 

to accept literal revelation, interpreted by collective 
policy, for the sole purpose of inducing ignorance and 
credulity to exchange natural products for political 
pretensions. 

A Spiritual comprehension of the Bible would not 
permit of a political interpretation for that reason; 
there is no controversy involved in such a simple 
Truth as a direct revelation being bestowed upon 
Christ. There is no evidence in the Bible that the 
revelation was for a collective or political accommo- 
dation. It is, therefore, since a popular form of civil 
government made it safe, an individual privilege to 
interpret the Bible privately or publicly as the case 
may be. It does not interfere in the least with a col- 
lective interpretation since political authority cannot 
compel a person to accept revelation by any process of 
mediation. 

Nature's relation to God and the Truth needs no 
defence. It simply demands recognition. Humanity 
is a natural product that represents the most sublime 
effect of Nature, for the reason that individual man 
reflects a common equity to all. It is an infinite prin- 
ciple that protects the entire human race against the 
egotism of superiority by reason of superficial effect 
both visible and temporal, including all the suffering 
and misery incidental to the freedom of conduct and 
privilege of exchange. Invisible happiness is sacred 
by reason of direct revelation, to protect which, the 
product of natural virtue is preserved by its infinite 
invisibility. Hence the equity of exchange would de- 
pend upon the recognition of the Spiritual Truth 
against its literal abstract invented by the policy of 
man as a means of advantage in the struggle for ex- 
istence. 



2l8 HUMAN EQUITY 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

SUPERFICIAL REPUTATION. 

A REPUTATION that depends upon collective 
protection to the extent that its continuity can 
only be maintained by external support is defective in 
comparison to the Spiritual Truth which, under no 
circumstances needs support from collective or po- 
litical decree. It is this feature pertaining to the de- 
sire for the truth that is no less important than the 
truth itself. Reputation that is a temporal accommo- 
dation, like a suit of clothes needing renewal or repairs 
could never be upon the rock of eternal Truth ; such 
a reputation has no occasion to complain against ob- 
jective attacks which would only bring out the luster 
of its infinite character to an extent that no superfi- 
cial reputation could possibly attain. 

To determine the difference between a subjective 
and objective reputation it would involve a situation 
visible to the subject and invisible to the object. This 
presents an opposite relation between subject and ob- 
ject that suggests a careful attention by any person 
sincerely striving for an understanding of what con- 
crete or intrinsic Truth really stands for. It is this 
feature also, that the esoteric learned guard with the 
most strenuous care ; whether for good or evil pur- 
pose, the fact would be common property to whoso- 
ever chose to embrace it. It is no argument to con- 



HUMAN EQUITY 219 

tend against true or false history; the point is, that 
objective authority has been able to command subjec- 
tive obedience to the extent even that subjective ex- 
perience in an ideal sense has been superseded by the 
external pretence of a superior authority. Pretence, 
in the sense that Spiritual authority was never con- 
quered, other than the objective ability to maintain a 
tentative effort. Hence the subject has never been 
robbed of its Spiritual prerogative, beyond the ob- 
jective duplicity strictly confined to the control of ma- 
terial movement, by which a subject can be persuaded 
to follow material attractions until objective authority 
appears to control subjective truth. 

A person having no respect for experience in com- 
parison to objective authority would be ignorant of 
Spiritual Truth, since he would be more concerned in 
the superfluities of objective effect. This is apparent 
by failure to recognize that Truth is a spontaneous 
revelation subjectively experienced. The failure to 
recognize the simple fact that Truth is experience is 
due to the material attraction by which man's Truth 
can be objectively transmitted. It does not effect the 
ipso facto of Truth, but instead it transfers an obli- 
gation derived from spontaneous experience to the ob- 
jective ability of transmitting experience by means of 
relative words which, perforce, are abstracts of the 
same concrete Truth, a principle as inviolate as per- 
sonality itself. One's own personal presence is a 
fact that no literal proof could improve a fraction. 
Objective influence once firmly established, the con- 
tinuity of experience would be confined to the book 
transmission of experience at the command of eso- 
teric policy, to the strict prohibition of original ex- 
perience. 



220 HUMAN EQUITY 

It would not establish an absolute authority of ob- 
ject over subject, however strenuously political effort 
is always directed to that end. Experience will effect 
a method of release from a thralldom of any character 
providing it is recognized that Truth is experience 
directly revealed; an entity so strictly personal that 
no method has ever been discovered by which it could 
be transcended successfully. 

The relation of superficial reputation to the cardinal 
virtue of a reputation that endureth forever, is in- 
volved in the personal privilege of choice between ex- 
perience proper and its abstract objectively trans- 
mitted. Perfection is no less perfect in the subject 
than in the object, each being subject to the other by 
reason of a common birth dependent upon the same 
direct influence. A political reputation depends upon 
superficial attraction derived from objective preten- 
sion to an authority over subjective reality, for that 
reason a superficial reputation is so dependent upon 
objective authority since a reciprocity of interests 
supports each other. A reputation, however, that de- 
pends upon external support, reflects a policy that 
nothing but some condition of bondage can support. 
It is, therefore, absurd for collective authority to pro- 
tect the general principle of objective authority for 
the purpose of maintaining transient reputations that 
have no other qualification than a superficial attrac- 
tion. 

A thorough understanding of what a reputation in- 
volves, either good or bad, is inseparable with the po- 
litical effort to stifle Spiritual freedom. Honesty does 
not insure a profitable reputation, neither does it af- 
ford a protection against utter destruction instigated 



HUMAN EQUITY 22 1 

by some collective policy supported by numbers, al- 
ways attainable from any ingenious distortion of facts. 
The responsibility, therefore, for disorder, loss of rep- 
utation, or a manufacture of one by which means a 
confidence can be established and also betrayed, rests 
upon the political ability to maintain a theoretic inter- 
vention between God and man, contemporary with the 
intervention between individual man and whatever 
civil government that is suggested to protect man 
from man. The fact that Truth, Virtue, and Reputa- 
tion that time does not impair, but will stand alone 
against the fierce bombardment of political man, pre- 
sents a typical suggestion that Spiritual man in the 
image of his Maker, needing no support from a senti- 
ment of policy that is constantly betraying a dishonest 
design by its temporal character that even a child 
can discern previous to its brain being clogged by ob- 
jective policy. The very presence of a civil govern- 
ment is evidence that the child is its moral Redeemer, 
with no disrespect for the advent of Christ, who could 
not have been more than perfect ; and no parent in- 
spired by the same direct revelation, could love the 
child and believe it to be any less than perfect. The 
policy of full-grown man crucified Christ and the same 
policy has ever sought to distort the Scriptures in 
vain, because they are the Truth and able to stand 
above and have stood against political pretension of 
supporting whatever it could not destroy. 

Every person is a sacred institution, his relation to 
birth, reward, punishment, and death is individual ; 
to hold, therefore, that experience is subject to collec- 
tive control presents the same absurdity as to sepa- 
rate authority and responsibility. That is to say, col- 



222 HUMAN EQUITY 

lective authority supported by political chicane in pro- 
portion to numbers who can be persuaded to chase a 
vague reputation or some material attraction, can 
shirk responsibility and still maintain authority over 
its victim who would be denied personal experience 
if it were possible. This establishes a general proof 
that experience is a personal relation with God; to 
deny it, however, would not disturb the individual 
with courage enough to recognize that his personal 
experience was all the knowledge he possessed or 
could possess, by virtue of personal responsibility for 
every act, that neither reputation or collective author- 
ity could in the least degree prevent. 

Man is a natural object of observation in common 
with all objects in general, either repulsive or attrac- 
tive according to the innate sense of whatever is beau- 
tiful. Innocence is an object of beauty by reason of 
the experience of an observer, it is a confiding state 
that may be appropriated by the art of deception. 
This art is imparted by objective influence, and the 
child that falls into the net of deception will naturally 
employ the same art to involve another. It substanti- 
ates the importance of experience and the direct per- 
sonal communion with God. The regularity of ob- 
jects perceived are silent teachers of morality in re- 
buke of temporal objects or objective activity that is 
void of the regularity which establishes a distinction 
between direct action and the policy of pretension. 
This distinction is obvious to a child ; it is not im- 
parted by irregular objective action, for if such was 
the case there would be no distinction. 

Whatever pertains to the conduct of man relating 
to assistance, intervention or delegated authority, it 



HUMAN EQUITY 223 

is distinctly characterized by temporal means and also 
the effects. The significant point is, that whatever 
transaction occurs between man and man it is always 
temporal. Because it is an inevitable fact, makes the 
relation between God and man no less inevitable, but 
distinctly opposite, by reason of such relation being 
infinite and absolutely unchangeable. To observe 
consciousness objectively from a subjective experi- 
ence, it does not effect the relation between God and 
man in either a conscious or unconscious state. The 
ability of incarnate man to dispute his Spiritual rela- 
tion with God in the absence of objective intervention 
makes the Truth more conspicuous from even a ma- 
terial standpoint. Consciousness and experience are 
no less than the Truth. No objective God could be 
conceived to be more than the power to conceive Him. 
Thus the recognition of supreme Truth directly re- 
vealed can be accepted without disputing political 
man who demands material proof of a Spiritual fact. 
In the absence of proof satisfactory to the political 
man, he proclaims his power and points to his tem- 
poral reputation and destructive influence, simply be- 
cause Spiritual power is so regular that man can de- 
pend upon it to work iniquity. 

The dual character of reputation points to a distinc- 
tion analogous to the difference between the Spiritual 
and the material, or the active and passive. The rela- 
tion of ideal forms to real things presents an accom- 
modation to political man, so abstruse that the many 
can be either hushed to silence by the few or com- 
pelled to think objectively what it pleases the few to 
permit. The pampering to morbid sensibility by 
means of sarcasm, and ridicule effect a superficial 



2 24 HUMAN EQUITY 

reputation in reciprocal exchange of value equally as 
vainglorious as the temporal character of a reputation, 
having no virtue beyond its material attraction. It is 
a cheap imitation of spontaneous popularity thrust 
upon a person in the performance of a sacrifice 
prompted by moral duty. Such a recognition would 
be vulgarized by calling it "reputation" ; for private 
benevolence demands no recognition for an act be- 
yond the consciousness of it. 

A very little intrinsic virtue of an infinite character 
has no relation to the conduct of man or conventional 
propriety. To determine the definite character of vir- 
tue the silent communion with God is the only arbiter. 
Neither speech, or written language, or any method of 
communication can have the least effect upon intrin- 
sic virtue. The conduct of man is limited to the use 
of a Power over which he has no control. The policy 
of pretending to direct this Power is as distant as its 
beginning, of which the sacred character of personal- 
ity is individually exemplified. Man's folly is due to 
the policy of conduct which has no relation to virtue, 
of which fact the records of the past attest; and the 
effort to hide the evil from the observation of chil- 
dren has the effect to illuminate the pitfall, since it can 
the more readily be shunned. The general conduct of 
abstract society can be observed at the silent con- 
venience of any individual. It requires no pointing 
out in detail; the observation, however, could not be 
controverted to the extent of preventing the observa- 
tion, that abstract society grows more persistently 
corrupt in proportion as the intrinsic virtue of com- 
mon humanity becomes more apparent. 

A clear conscience reflects an intrinsic character to 



HUMAN EQUITY 2 25 

which a temporal reputation presents no point of com- 
parison. A personal touch with God reveals more 
than all the reputations that were ever bought or ac- 
quired by political decree. Heaven is a place in the 
immediate present to be obtained by recognizing the 
only Truth, rather than being misled by the policy of 
material attraction that is only beautiful in the absence 
of the policy or some selfish motive that a transient 
or superficial reputation will always present. The, 
personal option between a clear conscience and a rep- 
utation founded upon sand, or temporal support, is all 
a present Heaven costs. The mere recognition of 
personal freedom in direct touch with God has no oc- 
casion to depend upon a reputation endorsed by any 
intervening authority, more remarkable for vice than 
virtue. From a mere logical observation, the future 
constantly presents an e ndless beyond ; for that reason 
the present suggests the only place where Heaven 
could be properly located. 

Virtue in silence compares with a clear conscience; 
neither covets a material reward at the command of 
the few who fancy themselves in possession of an ideal 
vision formulated by a speculation as false as the 
reputation sought. The intoxication of material 
success and the adulation of noisy admirers eagerly 
waiting to be led by false pretenders who are engulfed 
themselves in a delirium of superficial reputation sup- 
ported by the political command of pedantic critics, 
will for a few dollars eulogize a person and give him 
a coat of praise when the same critic would reverse 
his tender regard for material gain and hurl ridicule 
and sarcasm at a defenceless object that gave exter- 
nal evidence of fright. Defenceless, however, for a 



2 26 HUMAN EQUITY 

limited experience, in the sense that a little experience 
morally employed will effect more happiness than a 
flood from abstract learning employed in volubility of 
utterance that has no more effect upon an intrinsic 
character than polishing would upon the intrinsic lus- 
ter of a diamond. 

Public opinion is sentimentally treated as a collect- 
ion of such literature as receives esoteric permission 
to circulate among the common people without being 
subject to a censorious criticism, little less than scur- 
rilous, from either a moral or Christian standpoint. 
The recognition of "free speech" by State decree has 
produced a "free press" abstracted from the God-given 
right of free speech that the American Revolution 
compelled the State authority to recognize. The free 
press can make or break a superficial reputation that 
bids fair to outdo the State effort to suppress the natu- 
ral right of man to his freedom of opinion. The limit 
of a free press is to appeal to a morbid sensibility that 
is previously effected by the same influence. An hon- 
est act is never improved by a free press that would 
seek to extend its own freedom by the suppression of 
free speech, or the Spirit of liberty that is no less an 
intrinsic feature of entire humanity, than its personal 
presence upon the earth. 

The false pretence of improving public opinion is 
obviously false, by the effort to dictate what the opin- 
ion shall be. In connection also with the folly of pre- 
tending to impart virtue and knowledge in like man- 
ner to the sale of reputations, suggestive of the an- 
cient "sale of indulgences," does little credit to the 
improved enlightenment of the present age. To claim 
that enlightenment is due to the imparting influence 



HUMAN EQUITY 227 

of external effort, carries its own reputation in the 
newspapers' effort of disrespect for an opinion that 
does not submit to the dogma of intervention. Silent 
opinions cannot be prevented by the meager effort to 
sell reputations. Hence, the absurdity of improving 
the public by commanding a submission to a free press 
that has no respect for personal freedom. It only 
needs to be observed that the silent opinion of an in- 
dividual reflects the same sacredness when collectively 
augmented to a state of public opinion. Besides, a 
free press that will buy and sell reputations, would 
also buy and sell the public. A clear conscience costs 
very little, but it is too valuable to sell or exchange 
for a superficial reputation always buried with the 
corpse. 



2 28 HUMAN EQUITY 



CHAPTER XXV. 

EXTRAVAGANT EXPECTATIONS. 

THE extension of punishment, to a future, for a sin 
committed in the present is the most illusory in- 
vention that the policy of man ever inaugurated to 
frighten the morally innocent to submit to a state of 
servitude. The fact that the present condition of ab- 
stract society depends upon the purchase of approba- 
tion defended by collective retainers, is evidence that 
social immorality is just as dependent upon some 
form of slavery as it ever was in the past. If what is 
imparted by surrounding objects is the intervening 
medium of reforming evil conduct, it should be 
treated adversely as an example to shun rather than 
to emulate. Mistakes are an institution of civilization 
to the extent that experience is the touch of God, but 
to cultivate mistakes and extend the settling day to a 
remote future, is to sacrifice present happiness for ex- 
pectations, that are always far enough beyond to be 
forever out of reach. 

Material worship is the science of idolatry to which 
Christianity presented a Spiritual force in opposition. 
The invention of letters, as such, was purely a ma- 
terial effect. Letters never rose above their relative 
character to portray consciousness — the touch of God 
— an experience that no policy of man seeking to es- 
tablish authority ever overcomes. It depended upon 



HUMAN EQUITY 229 

the cultivation of evil to preserve an expectation of 
material reward in contradiction to direct revelation, 
by which experience conceives — the touch of God. 
The Truth requires no policy of protection. To rec- 
ognize, however, that God, Truth and Experience are 
identical, is the privilege of private judgment to deter- 
mine which taxes the function of courage, to contend 
against the continual policy of evil in contention 
against the Truth, for fear it will become too popular. 

An object perceived by the senses is either material, 
or an ideal conception originating in the mind of an 
individual. When the object is material it is a real 
fact, but when it is an ideal conception to be taught 
or imparted it represents a policy of some character. 
If the ideal conception is derived from an honest pur- 
pose it cannot be employed to betray the person's 
welfare to whom it might be imparted. But, if the 
purpose is to supersede the direct touch of God by 
substituting an intervening or delegated authority to 
determine what the touch of God signified, the pur- 
pose is dishonest. 

Freedom is either a conscious conception, or a per- 
mission derived from objective authority; to choose 
between this alternative is a personal privilege. An 
active policy to direct this choice in favor of external 
authority presents the fundamental ground upon 
which every form of servitude has been instituted. If 
this policy has been pursued and continues to be up- 
held by predominating influences, it is either immoral 
or freedom in its intrinsic sense is more an ideal fancy 
than a substantial reality. If the purpose is to "up- 
lift" humanity, which is loudly proclaimed, of what 
purpose is moral conduct when it is practically ignored 



23O HUMAN EQUITY 

except by permission of an immoral or dishonest pol- 
icy? 

Because extravagant expectations are encouraged 
by the same policy that ridicules any suggestions of 
immediate reform, the pretense of improving human- 
ity becomes more noticeable in the multiplicity of ex- 
travagances than any improved morality or honesty of 
conduct. Expectations are a remote prospect of re- 
ward for immediate service that the present necessi- 
ties demand regardless of the future. A moral pre- 
cept which only applies to the individual at the dic- 
tion of a collective body, taking advantage of its su- 
perior strength to exempt itself from its own diction, 
presents an incompatibility that would not escape the 
observation of a child. To hold, therefore, that an 
ideal formula is more in touch with God than indi- 
vidual consciousness, would elevate the diction of man 
above God by virtue of collective strength. Collective 
strength never got beyond the Truth except by its 
tentative employment to mystify the individual ; first, 
by fright or threatenings of some character; after 
which ideal formulas are presented as the best 
method to overcome the direct revelation or moral 
conduct. Material attraction is the most vulnerable 
point of human weakness, either objectively or sub- 
jectively. It is a necessary virtue to direct human 
progress, but the principle can be diverted by collec- 
tive policy in presenting expectations in exchange for 
individual support by which means every collective 
body is constructed. Any ideal formula is misleading 
by reason of its sentimental necessity to detract the 
individual from a direct communion with God, by pre- 
senting a formula of pretension that permission to 



HUMAN EQUITY 23 I 

communicate with Him was only possible by applica- 
tion to some collective body. 

An ideal formula that can point to material advan- 
tages and also present methods by which expectations 
can be cultivated, fails to explain what will become of 
extravagance, always a product of expectation from a 
material point of view. That is, if ideal formulas can 
transcend the bound of human knowledge by virtue of 
collective strength, its pretension to an honest pur- 
pose is exploded by the state of misery and unhappi- 
ness that extravagance always produces, verified by 
experience ; if not the direct touch of God it is more 
potent from a point of honesty than any ideal formu- 
las have ever accomplished. 

When an ideal scholar devotes his ability to point- 
ing out the vagaries of the Bible, it is good evidence 
that he is wandering away from his Spiritual experi- 
ence, for the Bible presents the same Spiritual touch 
that can only be recognized by individual contact. 
The strict literalist would be compelled to support the 
theory of ideal formula transcending experience ; it 
would be an evidence of the personal freedom of opin- 
ion except when that freedom was extended to dog- 
matic orthodoxy. Such a position would be un-Chris- 
tian by reason of the entire absence of charity for 
anyone holding an opinion adverse to the strict letter 
of so-called established authority. A policy of collec- 
tive support has always been necessary to conserve an 
authority of letters or their relative character; it is 
this feature requiring the protection of a body of re- 
tainers that suggests a reasonable doubt whether a 
strict literalist could be as devoted to the uplifting of 
his fellowmen as he was in trying to cultivate extrav- 



232 HUMAN EQUITY 

agant expectations. Reason again would seek further 
information of the strict literalist, to learn his views 
of what the function of experience was, with its privi- 
leges. Since a literalist could become a metamorpho- 
sis it would be discourteous to ask such a person if he 
had forgotten the God of his childhood, since ideal 
formulas had stimulated his desire for extravagant 
expectations until the beyond appeared to move fur- 
ther away. 

An honest purpose would encourage experience to 
assert itself, in whatever form of expression it sug- 
gested. It would present a natural concrete state of 
virtue from which morality could be deducted to the 
advantage of peace and happiness. On the other 
hand, a dishonest purpose repels by an effort of induc- 
tion, encouraging a state of fright and violent resent- 
ment, which forms the foundation of ready accept- 
ance to any material attraction that is presented. 
The object in possession of a greater volume of ac- 
quirements is the party at fault. Such a person could 
not be innocent of seeking some advantage from false 
pretensions, since not having any design there would 
be nothing to impart. An extended familiarity with 
ideal formulas in the absence of moral rectitude would 
be like a burglar, more dangerous with tools than 
without. The fact again that virtue is in the base, 
however latent or silent, it presents a situation for 
moralists and reformers to study if they lack the cour- 
age to practice, since wickedness in high places pass- 
eth understanding. 

It is only a question of courage for experience to 
assert itself which would be no less a fact by reason 
of silence. The literalist and moralist by declaration 



HUMAN EQUITY 233 

of purpose are both dictators from a natural stand- 
point. It presents a significant partnership when the 
only mutual agreement is to contest the clear title of 
man's relation with God, of which experience and con- 
sciousness is and has been the indestructible voucher. 
A person makes no complaint until experience reveals 
to him that he is being imposed upon. The diction of 
the literalist with the persuasion of the moralist, is to 
submit cheerfully to oppression, but when confidence 
is betrayed and promised expectations discovered to 
be a myth, the never failing experience becomes more 
prominent. The discovery may be harbored in si- 
lence for fear of the threatenings of the literalist who 
dictates a formula of defence so intricate that simple 
experience would be preferred. The literalist and ma- 
terialist are identical, while the moralist to be a ma- 
terialist would contradict himself. Theology is treated 
as a science by materialists because it must first be 
hypothetically materialized before it can be criticized 
or analyzed. The theologian cannot specify Spirit or 
a soul without assuming it to have material faculties 
for no knowledge of objects or expectations could be 
transmitted between man and man except by the 
comparison with material objects. 

The impossibility of harmonizing the difference be- 
tween theology and science is constantly being pre- 
sented to entire humanity, who are the absolute jury 
in the case. The people approve in proportion as ex- 
travagant prospects can be illuminated into expecta- 
tions ; they also disapprove in proportion to disap- 
pointment and the loss of confidence by the intelligent 
comparison of conduct. A third feature that cannot 
be disposed of by either theology or science, is free- 



234 HUMAN EQUITY 

dom, in the broadest sense the principle could be con- 
ceived. It is the freedom which Christianity stands 
for, presenting no feature of a materialistic character. 

Empiricism presents no feature of admiration to any- 
collective system that necessarily depends upon a ma- 
terial policy to attract supporters. However paradox- 
ical it would appear, a system would always recognize 
the individual who could be persuaded or forced to 
recognize the system. The intrinsic character of free- 
dom is obvious in collective systems, regardless of the 
antagonism between them. That is, collective sys- 
tems recognize the privilege of contention between the 
systems to obtain individual support, but the individ- 
ual must cheerfully submit to being sacrificed for the 
interest of the system. Whether it was a religious or 
secular system the same general principle would hold, 
demonstrating that freedom or Christianity could only 
exist by permission of some collective body. It would 
destroy the luster of Christianity if it were possible, 
it is exactly what theology and science have been 
contending since the instruments of communication 
between man and man were first invented. 

The influence of collective strength can support ex- 
travagance of any character. It can also ostracize and 
threaten whoever dares to offer an opposition, but the 
relation between man and God presents the moral 
character of man in silent communion with Spirit, 
that no system of policy has ever been able to com- 
mand. Whatever is moral or honest transcends any 
policy which, to be such, it must oppose Spiritual 
truth in order to support material extravagance. It is 
a prodigal effort to drift away from personal experi- 
ence, the only knowledge of God that is possible to be 



HUMAN EQUITY 235 

obtained ; and follow vague pretensions, which can 
only exist by denouncing the empirical character of 
man upon which the entire human fabric rests, prac- 
tically the moral nature of man directly revealed and 
preserved by his empirical character. Science has no 
jurisdiction in the realm of Spirit without trenching 
upon theology, for theology proper is a spiritual spec- 
ulation relating to moral conduct. The effort of sci- 
ence to prove a theory to be false proves it to be true, 
for a theory to be such relates to an expectation be- 
yond what is at present known. It would not be an 
expectation if it was definitely known what to expect. 
The ability to construct ideal expectations is based 
upon actual experience of material effect. Human 
selfishness would not take the trouble to study science 
for the purpose of demonstrating the common privi- 
lege of moral conduct. It would be poor policy to en- 
courage a scientific system that would strengthen the 
weakness of humanity, upon which the system de- 
pended for its own existence. 

The fact that a weakness of volition like the harm- 
less innocence of a child presents the only object that 
the strong can prey upon as a source of profit for the 
exclusive benefit of the strong, reflects an inconsis- 
tency that none but the weak could fail to grasp. The 
responsibility for this outrageous conduct is the pres- 
ent matter in hand. The mere apology of the strong 
for conspicuous wickedness that continues to grow in 
proportion to the cultivation of extravagance, is the 
field of the sincere reformer and moralist to exercise 
their ability. Natural morality is as pure as sunlight, 
it represents the infinite relation between God and 
man. It is a condition of unconcern with no under- 



236 HUMAN EQUITY 

standing of the policy of fault finding. Such condi- 
tions arise from disappointment and the betrayal of 
confidence after extravagant expectations have been 
tested at the earnest solicitation of the strong who try 
to believe that morality is a superficial formality that 
can hide the conscious wickedness within. If experi- 
ence is not the direct method of communion with God, 
the evidence is wanting to prove any abstract method 
capable of rising superior to its source. 

The policy of protecting the strong against the dan- 
ger of the weak presents a diversity, that admits an 
intent to protect an evil, or something wrong, regard- 
less of moral retribution. Also the effort to apologize 
for conspicuous wickedness as a protective measure to 
preserve abstract society, since no scientific discovery 
has ever been able to refute what experience teaches, 
that virtue and morality can only be preserved in the 
base or natural against the rapacity of the strong to 
feast upon the natural productiveness of the weak. 
The policy of maintaining an abstruse system of ety- 
mology beyond common understanding, for the pur- 
pose of regenerating humanity from a natural to a 
Spiritual state, presents a fiction of folly based upon 
the weakness of understanding ; for to regenerate such 
weakness to a state of understanding, would expose 
the fact that more intellectual effort is exerted to pre- 
serve a sufficient weakness of understanding for fear 
the pose of regeneracy would be discovered to be a su- 
perficial formality, that would correspond with the ef- 
fort of the literalist seeking to erect a material struc- 
ture upon a Spiritual foundation. In brief, to regener- 
ate Nature to a height of continual expectation, re- 
veals the temporal character of art to be a fleeting 



HUMAN EQUITY 237 

phantom, contemporary with the natural ambition of 
man to progress. 

No person can support the vagaries of the literalist 
and also pose as a moralist, for they diverge from each 
other as opposite poles. The failure to recognize the 
virtue of experience as the touch of God, without sup- 
porting the literalist's interpretation of what pertains 
to conduct and duty, suggests a necessity of regener- 
acy much more important for the moralist to consider 
than the pretension of regenerating the direct author- 
ity of God. If the moralist is perforce compelled to 
follow the policy of the literalist to maintain the phan- 
tom of extravagant expectation, Spiritual regeneracy 
will continue to depend upon the infinite relation with 
God directly revealed to the individual. 



238 HUMAN EQUITY 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE DISPOSITION TO COMMAND. 

THE authority to command would appear to be de- 
rived from the disposition to command. To com- 
mand in the sense of a moral right, implies a natural 
willingness to submit to the formula of a civil govern- 
ment. "Due process of law" presents a reasonable 
privilege to command, derived from the consent of the 
governed in view of the natural timidity of man ; it 
protects his personality by submitting to a command 
for the purpose of united action. It was doubtless 
true that man discoverers by experience (the direct 
source of knowledge) that the worst enemy to excite 
his fear was man in his own likeness. The disposition 
to command is as natural as the innate ambition to 
progress or do something more or less. Fear, there- 
fore, is a state of weakness that presents an attraction 
for strength to command. That is, if there was noth- 
ing to submit there would be nothing to command. 

The infinite principle of Spiritual authority cannot 
be brushed away at the command of man, which is 
limited to his ability to frighten the weak in the ab- 
sence of a recognition of direct Spiirtual authority, 
that the weakest mortal cannot be ignorant of while 
in possession of will power enough to submit to the 
command of another person. A moral duty is not 
measured by strength or weakness ; for that reason the 



HUMAN EQUITY 239 

strength to command should be studied separate from 
the disposition to command. The fact that the politi- 
cal effort of man has always failed sooner or later in 
every effort to found an institution upon mere 
strength or disposition to act; otherwise it would re- 
vive the old dogma that might was right; an accom- 
modation to men with a disposition to rule tyranni- 
cally or prey upon the products of others. To enslave 
the weak was also justified by the learned to promote 
human progress. The disposition to be wicked ap- 
pears to grow in proportion to intellectual strength; it 
is only misleading, however, to those who are previ- 
ously misled by a system of policy defending the in- 
duction of intelligence, to prevent as far as possible 
the danger of any natural intelligence being deducted. 

From a political standpoint strength not only com- 
mands weakness, but protects any method by which 
weakness can be frightened by the same strength for 
the purpose of continuing the weakness, to furnish 
victims for strength to command. 

The moral reformer should consider before posing 
as such, whether he was influenced more by the dis- 
position to command, or a sincere purpose to impart 
information that would be of benefit to those who 
could be commanded by reason of weakness ; it would 
concern a reformer even more if he or she were a strict 
literalist. It would certainly betray weakness in the 
presence of a real moralist, to hold that inductive 
formulas must be acknowledged to secure a Spiritual 
recognition equivalent to a revealed presence of God. 
If the disposition to be moral and honest was as read- 
ily perceived as the disposition to command the weak, 
by first proclaiming that illiteracy was moral weak- 



24O HUMAN EQUITY 

ness ; it would suggest that conceit was more danger- 
ous than innocent weakness. Also if the experience 
of evil could be eliminated by an objective induction 
of literal precepts, it would reflect a miracle to deter- 
mine what an evil was in the absence of an experience. 
The power of command can frighten the weak to the 
utter extinction of courage; when to annihilate cour- 
age it would destroy both freedom and progress. It 
simply points to the weakness of literal authority in 
comparison to experience, since no system of com- 
mand has ever been inaugurated to effect an obedi- 
ence without force. 

The disposition to command can be extended to a 
dangerous degree, unlimited ; it develops vanity, affec- 
tation of virtue, and superficial humility; in compari- 
son, natural weakness of any character would be a vir- 
tue. The policy of political man has always been to 
command the weak, yet the weak are morally stronger 
from a natural and Christian standpoint than the af- 
fectation of intellectual strength that is thoroughly 
committed to artificial morality. There is no objec- 
tive judgment more obvious than what a person can 
exhibit by his own conduct. 

If natural virtue was ever a Spiritual Truth, artifi- 
cial virtue to be such cannot be more than a relative 
product. Besides, natural existence must always pre- 
cede artificial effect. The policy of degrading the 
natural at the command of its artificial effect would 
present an appearance of justifying a command by the 
artificially strong; and the cheerful submission of the 
naturally weak. The continual effort of presenting an 
ideal picture of the artificial commanding the natural 
is first-rate politics, but it has not a single feature of 



HUMAN EQUITY 24 1 

morality or truth connected with it. It is the effort 
to hide evil by material attractions while the good is 
proclaimed to be evil by reason of its unattractive 
weakness. A strict materialist must necessarily be a 
literalist of ability ; and when the disposition to com- 
mand is included, the product could be no less than a 
skeptical orthodox fully charged with artificial author- 
ity to prove a negative of whatever pertained to Spir- 
itual authority. 

Whatever invisible Power may be, either from 
whence or where it goes, it concerns every being con- 
scious of what he sees or feels ; it effects ability to rec- 
ognize that artificial authority is just as dependent 
upon the infinite Power for active wickedness as the 
weakest being ignorant of artificial acquirements ; 
since no knowledge of evil could be a companion of 
weakness, because a knowledge of strength would be 
necessary before evil could be conceived. 

It is commendable for any person to feel a desire 
to reform the degenerate, for wickedness is too real to 
require any ideal method by which it could be ob- 
served. Natural virtue and a moral disposition are 
no less visible than the wicked conduct of human be- 
ings justifying their acts upon the sentiment of an un- 
controllable disposition. It could not be overlooked 
by a sincere person in silent meditation, believing in a 
Spiritual revelation to observe that the disposition to 
act is remarkably elastic since what a person wants to 
do needs but a little external encouragement to sub- 
mit to artificial sentiment that effects an act adverse 
to the dictation of conscience. The will, therefore, is 
always poised between the natural and artificial, be- 
sides observation is in close relation to experience ; and 



242 HUMAN EQUITY 

when it could be observed how faulty artificial senti- 
ments could be, it points to a comparison between the 
infinite virtue of the natural and the artificial preten- 
sion of man that demands a constant apology for wick- 
edness to maintain a respectable relation of the arti- 
ficial with natural progress. 

It only requires moral courage to defend the virtue 
of the natural, while in comparison the defence of the 
artificial has cost rivers of blood and untold misery, 
yet the artificial effort to command the virtue of Na- 
ture appears to be as vague as ever. Progress appears 
to cost more than it is worth while artificial formulas 
demand the submission of natural virtue without the 
least consideration of voluntary consent. The skepti- 
cal literalist can effect a following in proportion to his 
eloquence, it effects an objective authority that com- 
mands the weak by fear; if they grow stronger ex- 
travagant expectations present an attraction severely 
testing the eloquent literalist who would find more 
difficulty in contending against material prosperity, 
than any condition of adversity. 

The error of man in charging all the misfortunes of 
life to Providence and all prosperity to his own saga- 
city of conduct, is a vain effort to elevate an artificial 
theory above the natural Truth, equivalent to the im- 
possibility of an effect commanding the cause from 
which it was produced. The private relation between 
God and man is not derived from artificial consent 
since it would not be private if objective permission 
had to be obtained. The individual relation with God 
is even more absolute than any pledge of obligation 
between man and man. It closes the least possibility 
of transmitting the private feature of personality, from 



HUMAN EQUITY 243 

the fact that no artificial method can transmit an ex- 
perience. Besides if personality was not a sacred pri- 
vacy, there would be no occasion to deny it objec- 
tively, in the sense that what did exist would be ab- 
surd to deny. The attempt even to deny the direct 
relation of individual person with God betrays a sub- 
mission to objective authority which can only be 
maintained by artificial transmission, which cannot be 
more than a relative product of the same Spiritual 
cause it would seek to deny. It would practically be 
a submission to artificial transmission which could 
not be able to transmit the sense of touch. Even after 
political compulsion had effected a complete submis- 
sion it could only apply to external manifestation of 
submission, indicated by some formula of an artificial 
character prompted by the fear of penalty, also exter- 
nally inflicted. It would in no sense effect the fact 
that experience was the touch of God over which arti- 
ficial policy commands an obedience in disregard for 
moral obligations, that can only be determined by per- 
sonal regard for the private relation between God and 
man. 

No command can be maintained permanently in dis- 
regard for moral tutorage derived from Spiritual reve- 
lation. It does not concern progress or natural intel- 
ligence, since both principles are derived from natural 
virtue latent in the very seed of humanity beyond the 
violent grasp of artificial polity. The question of 
moral tutorage is not a subject of political supervision, 
even in the most indirect manner. Its sphere of auth- 
ority is limited to the artificial or material relation be- 
tween man and man. A Power that can reveal itself 
to every living thing would indicate an ability of self 



244 HUMAN EQUITY 

protection that no artificial or political pretension has 
ever been able to demonstrate with equal success. 
Ever, dogmatic theories and the great variety of reli- 
gions have always appealed to political protection, 
tacitly admitting a lack of confidence in Spiritual reve- 
lation. The dissolution between the political and 
Spiritual authority was only partially effected by the 
American Revolution. It is a sprout that develops 
slowly, but equally as persistent in the line of freedom 
as the advent of Christianity. No political system 
would have substance to feed upon if it did not defend 
its own source of existence — conservatism. Neither 
freedom or progress is effected by artificial or political 
command, for strict conservatism would command the 
earth to cease moving if it could compel artificial 
product to effect such an end. 

A complete conviction of an intervening authority 
would exclude a recognition of personal or private 
communion of Spirit. An intervening system that in- 
terferes with the direct obligation of man to God, for 
"life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," must be 
governed by a policy, that is, whatever establishes it- 
self between man and a desired end, would have to 
show in reason a better authority for what end a per- 
son should seek, than the desire for it, in the absence 
of which there could be no comprehension of an end. 
The point would be, the Power that could reveal the 
desire and then direct an intervening authority to 
crush the desire or command a complete submission to 
objective influence would be self-evident that the auth- 
ority was a fraud. 

No apology for the pretension of a political com- 
mand could be entertained by a sentient person after 



HUMAN EQUITY 245 

the direct character of revelation was discovered to be 
a privilege of private judgment. Innocent obedi- 
ence to the command of political astuteness would be 
a virtue in its state of imbecility, for to comprehend 
what freedom and progress meant would be impos- 
sible without a knowledge of wickedness that experi- 
ence reveals ; to comprehend the existence of evil with- 
out an experience from which a comparison could be 
made, would so conserve goodness that a passive state 
would necessarily supplant one of activity. Freedom 
and progress are just as dependent upon experience as 
activity or motion is upon a Power able to move an 
atom of substance. 

A scheme is prompted by a desire from which the 
disposition to command is artificially put in motion. 
The Power to move a scheme is the essential feature 
of the scheme. No scheme has met with remarkable 
success in seeking to command the obedience of an- 
other who was in touch with the same Spirit, that all 
schemes must be in touch with also. It is headlong 
folly to permit a desire to command the submission of 
another without a reasonable regard for the relation 
of equity between God and man. The persistent regu- 
larity of the energy that moves things, is a constant 
rebuke to the man who becomes intoxicated with suc- 
cess encouraging a belief that the disposition to com- 
mand is derived from the ability to command. Be- 
cause a man discovers he can scheme by the light of 
its illuminating effect, he neglects to recognize the 
limitation of his ability is confined to the relation of 
man to man, a privilege so common that a scheme lives 
no longer than it is able to excite admiration. 

To effect the Spiritual relation between God and 



246 HUMAN EQUITY 

man political authority and Spiritual authority must 
be compared by virtue of private judgment; there is 
no earthly escape from a decision of which to serve. 
The mere effort to serve political authority would be 
a tacit surrender of private judgment to objective 
authority. It would be equivalent to a greater con- 
fidence in man as an object of environment than in 
God subjectively. No authority can maintain itself 
between God and man in a strict moral sense. To fol- 
low a policy of sentiment of political construction that 
a representative deputy is the exclusive method by 
which a governing power can be reached presents a 
coercive influence that none but the greedy able to 
frighten credulity are concerned with. 

The greedy and credulous are both excluded from 
any purpose in promoting freedom and progress. 
The greedy are consumed in the fire of their own 
wickedness. The political sagacity of man could not 
conceive a punishment more severe. Innocent credu- 
lity in submitting to the command of the greedy, are 
not involved in their wickedness by reason of the 
natural virtue of credulity, which being compelled to 
submit, would simply be consigned to a passive imbe- 
cility, for which the greedy would be exclusively re- 
sponsible : public observation is evidence that no 
amount of artificial ability exempts a person from 
punishment, who holds Spiritual authority in con- 
tempt. 

Freedom, progress, Christianity and Truth, relate 
to a Spiritual entity, over which no policy of man has 
ever succeeded in presiding. Experience is the Spir- 
itual touch that defies political authority which exists 
no loneer than its ability to command the credulous, 
bv first obstructing the trend of natural progress. 



HUMAN EQUITY 247 

strictly derived from the direct revelation of God to 
individual person. 

There is no better proof of the political opposition 
to Spiritual Truth than the concerted effort of insti- 
tutional policy in maintaining conventional preroga- 
tives founded upon mere sand in comparison to exped- 
ience individually revealed. The temporal character 
of custom and precedent, is the feeble authority which 
political man presumes to take credit for freedom and 
progress since he so plainly tries to prevent it by 
claiming precedent to be a law of common consent — 
a consent that must be forced upon the child, by rea- 
son of its consent being taken for granted before the 
child was born. Experience, however, is not subjec- 
tive to political command, even if common consent can 
be conventionally decreed before the subject is born. 



248 HUMAN EQUITY 



CHAPTER XXVII. 



CENSORIOUS CRITICISM. 



CRITICISM strictly applies to the conduct between 
man and man, it has no effect upon the intrinsic 
character of the Truth. It is a comparative exchange 
of abstract thought. No critic can be more severely 
criticised than his own criticism betrays. The com- 
mercial value of a critic depends upon his ability to 
distort words. He can be a literary pettifogger as well 
as a sincere promoter of harmonious relations con- 
sistent with a just regard for human equity. For a 
learned man to wear the virtue of innocence grace- 
fully, he must be a learned imbecile, otherwise he 
would be a skillful dissembler utterly indifferent to 
moral rectitude. 

At the present advanced stage of freedom and Chris- 
tianity, it suggests an effort of the learned to revive 
the illuminating effect of paganism since the disregard 
for a common fellowship of man is so carefully con- 
cealed in the effort to protect the predominating auth- 
ority of the few in contempt for the many. If the re- 
lation of the many to the few is to continually remain 
a condition of subordination, freedom would be a sen- 
timental farce, and Christianity an ideal dream of im- 
agination. That is, if freedom is a mere article of com- 
merce to be permitted, or purchased from the few, by 
the many the principle would be no different except 



HUMAN EQUITY 249 

in form since the Roman peon who was obliged to 
buy all the freedom he possessed, either Spiritual or 
political, from the Empire. 

Mere form of servitude has no effect upon the gen- 
eral principle of freedom. Neither does the distribu- 
tion of knowledge in the form of abstract learning 
effect the real entity of freedom an atom. Freedom is 
even more than a sentimental assertion, since it can 
only be determined by innate conception to be as sa- 
cred as the personal touch of God over which the pol- 
icy of man has never found a lodgment. Because the 
practice of freedom is entailed by the courage to act, 
its intrinsic virtue is not disturbed either by action or 
non-action. It is derived from the touch of God and 
withdrawn by the same direct means. 

If the origin of free speech has been a feature of po- 
litical permission it would never have been possible for 
the devil to have tempted Christ for forty days. There 
is no better evidence recorded in Scripture in support 
of the fact that freedom is directly revealed to who- 
soever has courage enough to defy the policy of man 
in his ephemeral display of material temptations to 
attract natural virtue from the direct communion with 
God. Physical freedom would become a lost art in 
the absence of courage enough to test material attrac- 
tions, which like fire and the energy of heat, both can 
be utilized subjectively; but to submit to the objective 
control of such consuming elements would be destruc- 
tive since the policy of man is limited to the mere pur- 
pose of frightening, to test the duplicity of which it is 
only necessary to exercise courage defensively, which 
would expose the fact that policy is always an evidence 
of cowardice and fear. 



25O HUMAN EQUITY 

Institutions of every character are miniature govern- 
ments presenting a policy however variable the pur- 
pose may be ; it is the prime feature of their relation 
to individual person, hence upon what authority can 
an institution censure an individual either by fright or 
persuasion? 

In the absence of civil authority legally constituted, 
any censorious criticism personally directed must 
apply to commercial patronage. To study the motive 
of any attraction seeking attention, is an important 
feature as a means to determine its merit. If it sug- 
gests a concealed weapon, it reflects the lack of moral 
courage. The recognition of personal government, or 
private judgment, would be a respect for the relation 
between God and man ; also if there is no such relation, 
there could not be any responsibility or obligation, 
when the conduct of man would be as absolutely 
established as the conduct of the lower animals. 

To observe the prime principle of free speech resting 
upon the sacredness of personality, it suggests that 
Spiritual inspiration is in no wise the effect of man's 
volatile conduct. A free press is therefore an 
abstract or an effect of individual free speech, from 
which institutional freedom follows in the order of 
sequence as an effect is necessarily the product of a 
cause. Nothing but the physical strength of numbers 
can maintain other than a tentative pretence of author- 
ity over Spiritual inspiration. It distinctively draws 
a line between free speech and a free press seeking to 
establish a censorious attitude by virtue of physical 
strength, in proportion to the numbers it can attract 
to its support. From a moral standpoint it presents a 
situation to determine whether physical strength can 



HUMAN EQUITY 25 I 

compel a single individual to submit to Spiritual au- 
thority by a mediating prescription in lieu of the direct 
of which he must be in possession, or no submission 
could be possible. 

The united action of a free press in parading itself 
as a bureau of criticism in defence of conservatism, 
would be no infringement upon the principle of free- 
dom if it could disguise its own betrayal of the princi- 
ple by adopting a feature of censure in imitation of 
ancient tyranny, trying to compel the many to submit 
to whatever prescription the few choose to dictate. 

The incongruity displayed by a critic cannot be hid- 
den behind the sheets of a great newspaper. The ten- 
tative effort of the cultivated (cultivation the evidence 
of art) to elevate art above Nature presents the uni- 
versal strife between man and man. It suggests a 
privilege which is sometimes designated as the sub- 
lime of the natural, to humble the unfortunate who are 
not cultivated in the art of sarcasm and ridicule. That 
it is natural to become artificial will not permit of a 
logical conclusion that an effect (art) can predominate 
over its source (Nature). 

It should be kindly observed that the words "God" 
and "Knowledge" were formulated to express a Power 
previously existing. The remoteness of a previous 
conception of consciousness does not detract from the 
beginning of an individual, existence revealing the 
consecutive character of the reproduction of conscious- 
ness. The critic who is embalmed in abstractions can 
no doubt obtain a good living without earning it, by 
a conservative attitude in contempt for any innovation 
against mere nominal form. 

The relentless demand of Nature, no less than the 



252 HUMAN EQUITY 

direct relation between God and the individual, will 
not permit of the critic, charged with artificial formula, 
in monopolizing the public attention indefinitely by 
the display of ability in declaring a purpose to "mould 
public opinion." Egoism can be cultivated as well as 
altruism since the empty show of words can be so arti- 
ficially delivered as to be beyond dispute. 

The days of the "medicine man, oracle, prophet and 
political boss," are rapidly passing into ancient his- 
tory. A Republic tentatively founded upon the prin- 
ciple of popular sovereignity and Christianity will 
never submit without opposition to political classics 
nor Christianity paganized by religious formality. No 
social institution or publication can maintain a critical 
attftude without patronage, for that reason censorious 
criticism is a patronizing system of relative superse- 
dure of art over Nature. It should be observed that 
the term art is used to denote the opposite to Nature, 
also that Nature is not recognized for the accommoda- 
tions of critics, as a protege of God since whatever is 
true is God; and when only one God is recognized it 
must also include only one Power preceding the con- 
duct of man. It therefore follows if Power was re- 
sponsible for the conduct of man the critic would have 
no office for the esthetic display of literal formula. 
Sarcasm even has no esthetical virtue since real beauty 
is of a higher order uttered in defence, than used 
aggressively to promote a polity of public expression 
predominating over the silent many. 

To measure the relative extent of silent intelligence 
with what is publicly displayed by the freedom of the 
press, could only be approximated. It could be safely 
inferred that the great mass of people do more silent 



HUMAN EQUITY 253 

thinking than the public press acknowledges. The 
generality of publications are more remarkable for 
the suppression of facts, since they are more devoted 
to advising the people what to think rather than recog- 
nizing the supreme Power that every human thought 
depends upon. A judicious inquiry among the silent 
people would to some extent disclose the growing in- 
difference to the external diction of private opinions. 
It is noticeable among the so-called lowest order of 
humanity that a clear idea exists of a direct com- 
munion with God. It reflects a knowledge of God 
that "higher criticism" appears to be a stranger. The 
critics of Aristotle disputed each other whether he was 
responsible for the declaration that "the first essence 
is the individual" ; also that the concrete individual is 
the unit of knowledge. The fact that Aristotle's writ- 
ings were garbled for political effect is of less import- 
ance than to observe that the idea of the individual 
relation with God and knowledge was current in 
ancient times. 

It is no doubt evident to the individual in great 
numbers that no other individual has a prior authority 
to determine what his private relations with God and 
knowledge are ; it does not detract, however, from the 
temptation of art disguised in political astuteness to 
mislead natural simplicity to believe that artificial 
knowledge entitles a man to a living without earning 
it. The man is yet to be born who can maintain a 
better title to the direct communion with God than 
the individual himself. Society promoted and pro- 
tected by political astuteness, including the State and 
institutions of every character, are all derived from 
artificial effect of a relative character. This distinc- 



254 HUMAN EQUITY 

tion between cause and effect suggests the independ- 
ent relation of every individual person with God. It 
is not a doctrine or system to be acquired by artificial 
learning, it suggests that the evidence is wanting that 
God requires any formal method by which He can be 
communicated with. The Truth demands recognition 
as the very source of art, to which fact it could be ob- 
served that Nature, the very essence of life and mo- 
tion, will never be subordinated by its own effect. 

Motion is subordinate to the priority of Power or 
energy and when a man can divorce himself from the 
notion of polity the absolute distinction between 
direct and indirect authority would be more apparent. 
If the individual title to private judgment is subject 
to political and external guidance there could be 
nothing left for the individual but strict obedience to 
external authority. It would be a more cruel form of 
slavery than history bears any record of. For any civil 
government to punish a man for conduct over which 
it was previously decreed he had no clear title, would 
make the declaration of a popular government not 
only a farce but absurd also. For this reason politi- 
cal authority is morally separate from any notion that 
social polity can decree. 

The study of science confined to artificial structure 
or physical analysis is its limit. Hence to intrude 
tentatively upon the realm of God with a view to stifle 
the individual to a state of silence is the abuse of 
science and a sacriligious disrespect for the power of 
God. It is a disgrace to science to include politics, 
for it is more properly an art. The critical nominalist, 
however, could find plenty of objections to recogniz- 
ing a natural idea or the reality of natural language 



HUMAN EQUITY 255 

unless it was scientifically permitted, which would 
establish an alliance with institutional polity. Under 
a popular form of government it might be overlooked 
or ignored that the individual is a personal institution 
established prior to the social institution. It points to 
a state of things which at least is extremely doubtful, 
whether public opinion voiced by a free press, a priv- 
ilege derived from individual freedom, can continue 
indefinitely to "mould" popular opinion. The distinc- 
tion between public and popular is equally as vague 
as what exists between political presumption and 
Spiritual reality. The moralist could observe when 
free from political alliances., that the populace are 
rapidly becoming indifferent to external influences. 
Science, polity, and theology, an incongruous combi- 
nation, can combine their united strength against 
the infinite character of man's individual relation 
with God. 

To lead implies a follower and when the scientific 
man claims by his own fiat to be the higher criticism 
it depends upon the patronage of followers to maintain 
the sentiment. To assume that the followers are the 
evidence of higher criticism would establish its claim 
to being the leader of progress. First principles are 
not subject to the diction of man declaring himself to 
be a leader, since in this age no one can be compelled 
to follow. First principles are as much the privilege 
of one man as another. All are embraced in this uni- 
versal order of things. The fact that a leader can mis- 
lead by calling it scientific is equally a fact that 
another can refuse to be deceived by a science that 
refuses to recognize any higher principle than that 
which is artificially established to compete with Na- 



256 HUMAN EQUITY 

ture, which is absolute in comparison with art, since 
it not only follows but always remains relative to first 
principles over which it constantly pretends to preside. 
To know God is to recognize first principles, which 
even systematic science depends upon for its effort to 
obstruct human equity universally revealed to every 
unit of humanity. To account for evil is no better 
accomplished than by the higher criticism which tries 
to deny the power of God by a scientific scheme to 
subordinate the order of Nature to the disorder of art. 



HUMAN EQUITY 257 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

NEGATIVE SCIENCE. 

SCIENCE as an external authority over individual 
freedom belongs to the category of politics and 
theology. To blanket the term in a sweeping general- 
ity it would include everything finite and artificial in 
opposition to everything infinite and natural. It is ag- 
nosticism, materialism, and modernism often called 
"Higher Criticism." It admits it, by the presumptive 
effort of demonstrating what is known and what is 
unknown. Its acceptance of the title "Higher Criti- 
cism" would imply that no negatives would be recog- 
nized. Yet popular opinion would continue to be a 
reality. 

Mr. Herbert Spencer says of science in "First Prin- 
ciples," page 18: "To see the absurdity of the pre- 
judice against it, we need only to remark that Science 
is simply a higher development of common knowl- 
edge ; and that if Science is repudiated, all knowledge 
must be repudiated along with it." It would appear 
that God should have some credit in connecting with 
a "common knowledge" equally as high as that which 
could be developed by Science. It is this feature of 
"higher" that repudiates any individual communion 
with God except what Science could externally im- 
part. The fact that Spencer's writings were directed 
toward a predetermined end — social evolution — it 



258 HUMAN EQUITY 

would not promote the end by recognizing the invio- 
late relation between God and man which science also 
must repudiate in order to maintain a vague claim that 
the development of knowledge is due to science. 

Science is anti-natural as well as anti-Spiritual and 
anti-Christian. It planks down a postulate with such 
positive declaration that to oppose it is to defy perse- 
cution. Even inventions are treated with contempt 
until they become self-evident. The scientific man 
plays with the pronouns "We and You," as if the 
human genius had no common existence above the 
command of science. To assert in defence of science 
that it only assumes a higher altitude pertaining to a 
mundane sphere it would simply reveal a policy. Any 
polity must postulate itself against the direct relation 
between God and man. There is no real difference in 
purpose between science and theology. They are only 
contending with each other for patronage ; both are 
parasitical on general principles ; both are opposed to 
acknowledging a universal revelation from God to 
each unit of humanity. It verifies the assertion attrib- 
uted to Aristotle that "the individual was the unit of 
Knowledge." This would leave no standing room for 
science to elevate itself upon the higher development 
of knowledge to a height overlooking its own source. 

Whatever symbolized conception science may enter- 
tain, it is worthy of note, verified by experience, that 
conscious happiness has never been dethroned by any 
system ordained by man. Since the institution of a 
popular form of government on the basis of individual 
sovereignity, theories and systems have multiplied 
rapidly by reason of such a radical departure from 
theocracy to a tentative declaration of popular sov- 



HUMAN EQUITY 259 

ereignity. It is of no consequence whether college 
professors are willing to recognize the fitness of the 
people to rule or not for it is more important to ob- 
serve that the people of meagre cultivation are learn- 
ing that their confidence in representative leaders is 
continually being betrayed. 

Scientific men who are not able to agree among 
themselves, boldly claim to be the leaders of progress. 
The silent multitude are not so ignorant of science 
not to know that leaders depend upon followers. In- 
difference is just as much a feature of freedom as to 
be constantly told that a neglect to follow some one, 
leads to destruction. A little courage soon demon- 
strates this dogma to be utterly false. Hence it is a 
reasonable conclusion that men prefer to be guided by 
their own knowledge than be compelled to follow the 
knowledge of others however scientific the develop- 
ment may be. It concerns the prospective leader more 
than it does the indifference of the man who discovers 
there is no reason why he should follow anyone. Be- 
sides a man fully trained to be a leader will be equally 
as indisposed in becoming a producer as the real pro- 
ducer is to become a follower. 

If a scientific man can demonstrate to a producer 
how he could obtain the fruit of his toil, it would be 
more to the point to exemplify the system than to 
demand to be supported in compensation for the in- 
formation. Even if it is a delusion that youth are 
attracted to a college to learn how to get a living 
without earning it, it is no delusion, publicly current, 
that professors of science and sociology are imported 
from Europe who lecture in class rooms to thousands 
of youth, that "democracy is a failure and the Declar- 



260 HUMAN EQUITY 

ation of Independence a mere delusion." To leave a 
country top-heavy with professors who can scarcely 
obtain the wages of a common laborer, to obtain a 
salary in a country able to pay more by reason of free 
institutions, and then denounce the principles that 
attracted the professor to imigrate is an incongruity 
that reflects an imposition. 

The multitude of disputes over systems and doc- 
trines has the effect upon the moderate thinker to ob- 
serve, if men pretending to be learned cannot agree, 
except upon the assertion that they are leaders of 
progress, it may be beneficial to the extent of encour- 
aging the common people to observe that he who does 
his own thinking has less burdens to bear. The pre- 
tension of professors that they lead the people which 
they are also patronizing for support will not deceive 
the producer after he discovers he is entitled to the 
fruit of his own toil. Christianity and the Declaration 
of Independence should be studied to learn that "lead- 
ers of men" without followers to command will pass 
into history recorded in dust. 

Metaphysics as a science has encountered great 
difficulties in reconciling the relation between subject 
and object. The difficulty is not so great except for 
the predetermined effort to maintain that a subject is 
dependent upon external influences. The very word 
"metaphysics" was coined to protect the symbolitical 
conception that man was a subject to external force. 
Political paganism would not recognize a oneness of 
force for the reason that it was a tacit admission of a 
common equity of humanity. Hence to maintain a 
dual character of force, it (the motor of movement) 
divided humanity into higher and lower types. It was 



HUMAN EQUITY 26 I 

necessarily a system of nominalism. It is reflected at 
the present in the term materialism and its more at- 
tractive counterpart — "Higher Criticism." This sys- 
tem pervaded the entire writings of Herbert Spencer. 
It was a duplicate effort of Aristotle, having the same 
defect for the reason that the system divided humanity 
physically in complete opposition to the essence of 
Christianity, which recognizes the lowest type of hu- 
manity to be in direct communion with God. 

The Truth needs no proof at the demand of any 
system of nominalism. It would be equivalent to an 
individual refusing to live until the source of life could 
be literally explained to him satisfactorily to his own 
conception of relative symbols. 

The privilege of the "low type" man to commune 
direct with God is never interrupted by reason of his 
lowness. It suggests a primordial base for a scientific 
man to investigate before he assumes a "higher" alti- 
tude. If "low type" man can commune direct with 
God, which no other man can prevent, in the entire 
absence of symbolitical conception it follows that he 
knows more about God than science ever discovered. 
As an explanation the difference would be from a lit- 
eral or material standpoint that what the "low type" 
knows is directly revealed to him is distinction from 
what the "higher type" man acquires. It presents 
another feature even more striking. The "low type" 
never communicates any knowledge of a revealed 
character other than the truth, which consigns the 
man of acquired symbols to the entire monopoly of 
what is evil, immoral, and false. Not necessarily so, 
but to the extent that he declaimed against God as 
"unknown," practically denying any relation between 



262 HUMAN EQUITY 

God and man. There are men as learned in letters and 
symbols as the average scientist that would no more 
deny the existence of God than the "low type" or 
"vulgar," according to Herbert Spencer, would; in 
their complete ignorance of letters it being impossible, 
It is a bold effort to teach youth that they have no 
relation with God except what can be imparted to 
them scientifically. Science confined to the physical 
is the limit of the system. The meta-physical bears 
the same relation to politics at the present time as it 
did when Aristotle invented the system as a stroke of 
patronage toward Alexander the Great, who was his 
pupil. There is no reason why the science of "meta- 
physics" will accomplish more in a great nation that 
permits the common people to think for themselves, 
when the system failed with the political advantage 
of an Empire when no person could utter his thoughts 
without permission. After nearly one hundred and 
fifty years of the most successful nation ever con- 
structed in so brief a period, by throwing off the meta- 
physical voke, it is highly improbable that they will 
voluntarily put it on again to accommodate science, 
which is no freer as an instituted system, than the in- 
tegral part of all systems. Any system pertaining to 
the science of mind is absurd, in connection with a de- 
clared system of popular sovereignity. 

The common man or "low type" even has no use 
for science to determine the relation of the babe to 
God. Any institution that will evade the truth to 
obtain patronage in support of the institution, is not 
Christian according to the Spiritual rendering of the 
Bible. This does not imply that institutions as such 
are intentionally immoral, for to subscribe to symbol- 



HUMAN EQUITY 263 

ical authority for the purpose of material profit is just 
as idolatrous at the present time as it was in the most 
illuminous days of the Pagans. To maintain this 
condition with a philosophical consistency the babe is 
proclaimed to be dependent upon external influences 
thus verifying symbolic authority over the subject. 
It is false, however, by the declaration of the babe 
itself who is entirely above and beyond the scope of 
science. 

The babe shows its independence and also its direct 
relation with God by simply making an effort to con- 
tinue its life. Its very weakness is evidence to the ob- 
servation of the lowest type of humanity, that only 
for the touch of God could it possess life independent 
of the parent sufficient to make the necessary exertion 
prior to any sustaining food. The mere effort to deny 
the clear title of the babe to a direct communion with 
God representing the political effort in conjunction 
with science to elevate formalism above reality of 
which the babe is such a positive evidence. For in- 
stance, the first cry of the babe is the guttural sound 
of the letter A in all written languages, in whatever 
multitude of forms the sound may be represented. 
All the letters of the alphabet follow in their order 
from the distinct sound of the babe. It is evident in 
all history as recorded by symbolic forms, that the 
scientific man has been more engaged in trying to 
maintain political authority over the Spiritual than a 
sincere effort to demonstrate the truth which must be 
apparent to any man who makes such a vigorous 
effort to deny the absolute and infinite for the sole 
purpose of elevating forms above facts ; giving to the 
finite and relative a misleading appearance to support 



264 HUMAN EQUITY 

external authority over the subject. When the illiter- 
ate give so much greater evidence of moral conduct 
than formalist protected by political force, it would 
raise the question whether man, the subject of God 
as revealed direct, can by denying the revelation, suc- 
ceed by scientific analysis of physical effect, prove that 
God is unknown and substitute the relative and finite, 
by scientific decree, to be all that can possibly be 
known. 

If the babe and "low type" man are to be continually 
crucified it will be equally as continuous for science 
to conquer the presence of the babe as a negative prop- 
osition to all scientific effort of a metaphysical char- 
acter. Besides the origin of language which can safely 
be trusted to the babe, who will also refuse to ac- 
knowledge the scientific conclusion that the mind is 
a "blank tablet," to be written upon by letters exter- 
nally formulated before the wonders of the outside 
world can be communicated. The limit of science is 
the possibility of destroying the babe before its "blank 
tablet" has an opportunity to communicate with its 
counterpart. Two babies of equal age before they can 
put the sound of letters into conventional syllables 
will communicate with each other by the comparison 
of objects, the only method known to science by which 
adults can exchange their thoughts and ideas. If the 
mind is a "blank tablet" it is wonderfully prepared by 
the "finger of God" to comprehend its own concep- 
tions both subjective and objective in preparation for 
the scientific attempt to substitute form for reality, or 
the material attraction of art for the simplicity of Na- 
ture. It should convince anyone who had a spark of 
natural reality remaining that God would provide a 



HUMAN EQUITY 265 

"blank tablet" in one human being to be engrossed 
upon by another to the effect that it had been discov- 
ered by political science that God was unknown and 
to follow that "Higher Criticism" that could be scien- 
tifically demonstrated to be the ultimate end of man. 
The faith in God is demonstrated to be a childish 
dream by scientific man who points to the wonderful 
progress and material acquirements due to the higher 
development of knowledge which "we" lead. The 
most prominent mistake of the scientific man is his 
own claim to leadership. He neglects to recognize 
the babe who is inspired by the direct revelation of 
God to lead in the march of progress. 



266 HUMAN EQUITY 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

MORAL SUASION. 

T 

1 O proffer advice in a haughty overbearing manner 
is neither persuasive or morally effective, for it will 
engender resentment and sow the seed of hate and 
revenge. Also to patronize another with a view to 
rendering assistance implies a selfish motive that the 
most ordinary human being is capable of penetrating. 
It is a common observation in addition to the testi- 
mony of experience that a tacit understanding of an 
inviolate connection direct with God is so universal 
that to consider any advice of a political character 
shakes the religious sense innate in man. It must be 
innate, for there is no evidence in history that external 
authority of a political or militant character ever im- 
parted a fraction of morality into the human mind. 
This principle could be affirmed and denied in sym- 
bolic discussion to the end of time without disturbing 
the invincible relation between God and man. It is a 
common question : Why discuss a situation that is in- 
vincible ? The answer is : The individual relation with 
God endows him with a feeling of human equity, and 
when it is continually humdrumed into his ear that 
God cannot be communicated with except by political 
permission, he knows better: thus between political 
submission and moral duty the universal right of de- 
fence suggests the right of discussion. 



HUMAN EQUITY 267 

Moral suasion, therefore, as a suggestion in opposi- 
tion to political iniquity is always in order; without 
this privilege man would be a machine of such posi- 
tive construction that progress would be a myth. 
Man has no escape from a choice between moral duty 
and submission to political authority. In reason, 
however, both relations could be served rendering to 
each their due. "Render unto Caesar what belongs to 
Caesar and to God what belongs to God." 

Whether private judgment is a reality or freedom 
a condition of external concession, the final decision 
of the individual is apparent or persuasion of any char- 
acter would be an absurd contradiction. The relation 
and motive of persuasion determines its moral char- 
acter rather than the mere act of persuasion. The 
point is, confidence of some degree must precede the 
least suggestion of assistance between two persons. 
The mere declaration of one that his superior culture, 
social prominence, or popular reputation, entitles him 
to insist upon his interpretation of what good conduct 
should be, in his opinion he would be above reproach. 
In case of a peer taking any acceptance to his code of 
conduct, he would be called upon to give reasons or 
show credentials. It is this complex feature of what 
good conduct really is, that it furnishes an opportunity 
of dissembling when external appearances are culti- 
vated as an evidence of morality. 

To recognize the universal right of private judgment 
as a direct revelation to individual man would be the 
only ground upon which moral suasion could be hon- 
estly maintained. The unwillingness to recognize 
what private judgment means would raise the trite 
objection that society depending upon political pro- 



268 HUMAN EQUITY 

tection when it would include a supervision over 
moral conduct. It establishes such a paradoxical situ- 
ation that a person must be a learned agnostic or a 
strict nominalist before being recognized in conven- 
tional society as cultivated. Tacit morality in the 
absence of external formality would consign an indi- 
vidual to perdition by the average public society. 

It would be the exception rather than the rule to 
find a person who would surrender his private judg- 
ment. Yet strange to say, very few would extend 
the privilege to universal humanity. It is this incon- 
gruity that gives to moral suasion an unlimited field ; 
but moral suasion to be such must be consistent, and 
able to contend against obstructions of any political 
or symbolical character. There is no reason why the 
worship of symbols and formality is any less idola- 
trous now than it ever was. 

There was no political system ever organized that 
did not hold to the principle of protecting itself against 
any opposition. It has no moral significance of a uni- 
versal character. Its prtence is the protection of 
society. Such a system of selfishness would not ex- 
tend any assistance without some return favor satis- 
factory to any society that depends upon some form 
of coercion for support. The record of politics has to 
its credit, mythology, slavery, crucifixion, persecu- 
tion and all the ancient executions by torture. Politi- 
cal astuteness would charge all these iniquities to the 
unwillingness of humanity to submit to physical 
strength. Combination with other systems has 
always been to the advantage of physical strength. 
Until the advent of Christ, religion was no more than 
a political plaything. Christianity revived the hopes 



HUMAN EQUITY 269 

of the oppressed and stimulated a new courage which 
can be no better expressed than by moral suasion 
against physical strength. 

The history of the conflicts between Christianity 
and physical strength is amply recorded. It would 
be a very indifferent reader not to observe that Chris- 
tianity proper had made a steady progress since the 
crucifixion against the combined effort of politics, 
scholasticism, commercialism and the modern name 
"higher criticism," which makes a dish of such exter- 
nal attraction that no apparent objections could be 
taken ; but the flavor of science is distinctly recognized, 
and the absence of moral seasoning excludes Chris- 
tians from the feast. 

Christianity is more than a name, it cannot be qual- 
ified by adjectives, neither can the name purify any 
system that is applied to which admits that it needs 
purifying by prefixing the name Christian to it. The 
word "Christian" signifies a self-sustaining essence 
that inspires such feelings as freedom, an instinct sus- 
ceptible of moral suasion, moral sense directly re- 
vealed, and the inviolate title to private judgment. It 
excludes all systems founded upon polity. A moral 
institution has no occasion to advertise as such or 
parade any distinction of its moral character, for if it 
is moral it will be known by its reflection. 

Political intrigue joined with scholarly ability 
watches strenuously any action or admission of a 
common equity. The early Church could not shake 
off politics entirely, neither would the civil authority 
in control of physical strength recognize a Spiritual 
Church. A Church militant would be compelled to 
be dominated by politics and the fact that the common 



27O HUMAN EQUITY 

people persistently cling to the Church proper (Spir- 
itual) made moral suasion and Christian progress slow 
against political intrigue, which has always been an- 
tagonistic to the essential feature of Christianity, the 
beacon light of human freedom. The idea of an al- 
liance with a supreme system on conditions of sub- 
mission to a subordinate system is the only conditions 
that a political system would entertain. Hence poli- 
tical Christianity is an impossibility which everyone 
knows who recognizes his clear title to a direct com- 
munion with God. The scientific man, or most pro- 
found scholar, who insists upon demonstrating that 
God is unknown betrays the fact that he is not so 
learned as the humblest being who recognizes his 
private privilege to commune direct with God. Thus 
it is possible to know God not from the testimony of 
one man but from a good many. 

Science can analyze physical organs and every visi- 
ble substance that Nature produces, and if that is a 
conviction to one's mind that God is unknown he be- 
comes a subject of moral suasion, for none are so 
degenerate as to be beyond the pale of regeneracy. 
Science proper and government proper are as much 
derived from the direct revelation of God as the sense 
of inquiry, or desire to improve things by invention, 
or even exemplify the possibility of moral conduct; 
but when science seeks for some apology for political 
iniquity for fear society and "free institution" will be 
sacrificed to a "Christian mob," since Christianity was 
maintained for three hundred years by the very dregs 
of society, it shows an effort to restore the luxury of 
heathendom supported by human slavery. What the 
"superior" man, the "survival of the fittest" and 



HUMAN EQUITY 27 I 

"higher criticism" need, is moral rectitude, while the 
common people need the courage to assert their moral 
convictions against the political effort to force instruc- 
tion antagonistic to Christianity upon youth parallel 
to the effort of the Middle Ages. 

There is no danger that God will be persuaded by 
Science to surrender His authority, but who suffers 
most by war, viewed from the records of history? 
It has always been the man single or collective who 
has pitted political strength against moral simplicity. 
Civil government is relative to Spiritual government, 
the very existence of which proves that man must 
have some system of unity for the moral disposed 
to defend themselves against the disposition of ag- 
gression ; the sustaining principle of any political sys- 
tem usurping the intervening space between the indi- 
vidual and his protective government, either Spiri- 
tual or civil. 

There is no moral reason that can be shown con- 
sistent with the recognition of popular government, 
to sustain an intervening authority between the pri- 
vate judgment of the individual and a constitutional 
government, of which the declared purpose is to pro- 
tect the popular will. Because the people can be 
frightened into supporting an intervening system 
(political) it does not effect the moral responsibility 
of the individual in maintaining a clear title to private 
judgment revealed direct or indirect, by virtue of 
moral suasion opposed to political intrigue which de- 
pends upon some form of compulsion reflecting an 
obstacle to the direct relation with God. To purify 
a system that is maintained by its opposition to man's 
direct relation with God would be equivalent to the 



272 HUMAN EQUITY 

attempt to making stealing respectable by cultivating 
the thief, on the ground of his necessity ; with an ideal 
belief that he must continue to exist by reason of his 
antiquity; besides the apology of Aristotle and also 
Herbert Spencer that stealing was a natural neces- 
sity to human progress. No doubt that science could 
prove that man would never have fallen if he had 
been thoroughly chained until the force of gravity 
had been imparted to him. 

The science of political economy with the regard 
for politics as the science of government, elevates 
science sentimentally to the supreme authority over 
human understanding. If youth can be trained to 
believe that science can demonstrate the "unknow- 
able" it would be a victory of the finite over the infinite 
that would destroy the long reign of political sys- 
tems, because if politics is a science there could be 
no possible occasion for the development of political 
economy, after science proper could directly control 
the machinery of government. The mere change in 
name of the intervening system would not make mat- 
ters any worse than they are, besides it might be bet- 
ter as a means of demonstrating to the people at large 
that they were entitled to control the situation with- 
out submitting to any intermediate system whatever. 
An alliance between good and evil would always be 
to the advantage of evil in as much as goodness is an 
infinite entity since evil depends upon patronage to 
maintain a system of compulsory authority. It is 
analogous to Science seeking an alliance with Theo- 
logy for the selfishness to be obtained by the alliance. 
Theology to be a moral system relating to a direct 
communion with God cannot retain its definite char- 



HUMAN EQUITY 273 

acter after entering into an alliance with Science 
which as a system declares its most essential feature 
to be the extreme opposed of Theology, that God is 
unknowable. The alliance therefore, would either be 
absurd or one principle would have to surrender to 
the other. If it was contended that an alliance could 
be maintained for political reasons it would equally 
destroy the supreme character of theology. No prin- 
ciple can be changed by a new definition of the sym- 
bol relating to it, or by giving it a new name for po- 
litical effect. 

A pertinent observation in regard to Theology is 
worthy of study E. B. Ninth Edition, Book XXIII, 
page 262. "It is a service to theology so to define it 
as to leave no room for asserting that it is only con- 
versant with the Bible. Theology, then, is the science 
of religion. What does this definition imply as to the 
relation of theology to religion? It implies, first, that 
theology presupposes and is preceded by religion. 
This is but an instance of the general truth that ex- 
perience must precede science and that science must 
be founded on experience. The implied use of prin- 
ciples is always prior to their explicit development. 
Speech is a great deal older than grammar; men rea- 
soned long before Aristotle taught them how they 
reasoned; and just as there must be speech before 
grammar, and reason before logic, so must there be 
religion before theology." 

The fact that a controversy exists between men of 
science and men of theology is ample proof that the 
individual can only decide for himself what his re- 
lation with God is. This must be admitted by the 
scholastic man or he is more devoted to polity to ob- 



274 HUMAN EQUITY 

struct the private understanding, when Science claims 
to be the higher development of Knowledge ; and 
Theology claims to be a system in communion with 
God. It would surely in that case transcend or at 
least be equal to the "higher development of Knowl- 
edge." Any science, therefore, that claims that God 
is an unknown mystery is certainly more political than 
sincerely striving to improve human conduct. 

If to know God is not knowledge, not to know Him 
is either irresponsible ignorance or political selfish- 
ness. For a single individual to claim that he knows 
God is equally as good evidence as for another to 
dispute him and claim in the absence of proof, to know 
God was false. What better proof could a reasonable 
man require than the personal presence of him con- 
cisely stating that he knew God? Surely if one man 
demands scientific proof of a man's presence before 
recognizing his innate power of speech and clear title 
to moral consciousness, the burden of proof would 
rest with the man who would refuse to recognize the 
consciousness of his own existence. The sense of love 
and sympathy is prior to any external acquirement or 
scientific pretence of a higher development of Knowl- 
edge above the power that makes the false statement 
possible. Not to know God while accepting His muni- 
ficence would not be the development of an "unknown 
mystery." Hence moral suasion as such, can only 
be prompted by love and sympathy for the entire hu- 
man race, misled by scientific attraction and political 
selfishness. 



HUMAN EQUITY 275 



CHAPTER XXX. 



THE WORSHIP OF FORM. 



THE most important feature of the word "form" is 
its relation to the finite in distinction to the in- 
finite. Form relates to the external feature of any- 
distinct object of perception. The worship of ob- 
jects in proportion to the form they present to the 
subject tends to neglect the more important feature 
which constitutes the inner sense to comprehend the 
presence of an external object. So far as the form 
of speech (written language) is able to communicate 
a comparison of ideas, the Bible demonstrates the re- 
lation of form to reality. It presents numerous illus- 
trations from which an individual choice can be made 
between the worship of idols and the worship of an 
infinite God. How anyone knows that God is infinite 
is determined by self-consciousness. The recognition 
of God is the discovery that the direct relation with 
Him establishes his infinitude against the external 
finite character of misleading forms. There is no bet- 
ter proof of the individual knowledge of God than 
the history of politico-science ever seeking to disprove 
it. What is obvious to the internal man is a blank to 
the external man trained to worship formality as the 
highest end of his finite existence. That he is not to 
blame would be a reasonable observation, but that 
would not exclude the fact that some one was to blame 



276 HUMAN EQUITY 

when another was deprived of his birthright. If there 
is no moral consciousness there is certainly a con- 
science capable of discriminating between good and 
evil since formality and idolatry are being constantly 
forced to surrender to the virtue implanted in the nat- 
ral man. 

Experience is a virtue unteachable having an ex- 
clusive relation with God. It is directly revealed in 
utter distinction to whatever is acquired. Nothing 
can be acquired intelligently prior to the touch of 
God which fertilizes the organs of consciousness. 
That this fact must always be prior to anything ac- 
quired, presents the exact relations between form and 
reality. Neither theology, science, or philosophy pre- 
sents any other relation than posterior to experience, 
indentical to direct revelation. Any individual there- 
fore has a clear title to defend his birthright, no less 
than experience in whatever form of communication 
his ability will permit. 

The individual person is always in command of his 
own defence by virtue of experience always being 
antecedent to any acquired form. Philosophers of 
the most eminent character who have tried to recon- 
cile political conduct with the munificence of God, 
have always been obliged to return to experience, or 
hold an agnostic position, practically denying reality 
for the apparent purpose of maintaining that acquire- 
ments and formality were the ultimate end of man. 
No individual person will either patronize formality 
or submit to external authority in relation to revela- 
tion after recognizing he is entitled to a private com- 
munion with God. 

The desire to communicate experience suggested 



HUMAN EQUITY 277 

the employment of some form or figure relative to the 
idea or thought conceived. It is the thought that pre- 
cedes the form in which it can be communicated to 
another. Any specific rule that prescribed a positive 
form by which means human beings are permitted to 
associate or communicate would be in contempt of 
revelation. Further, if revelation could be confined 
to political permission, the strict exercise of form 
would have made human progress impossible. 

Surely history does not record any permanent suc- 
cess in establishing a prohibition form by which the 
people could compare their experience. There appears 
to be a spark of progress confined to the within of the 
human race that neither science, political sagacity 
nor the scientific agnostic has ever been able to ex- 
tinguish. If this spark is not the evidence of God's 
presence, it is a principle that has been more persis- 
tent than the most brilliant formality that has ever 
paraded on the face of the earth. 

The history of written languages is good evidence 
of the temporal character of mere forms. The mul- 
titude of forms relative to the first cry of the infant 
announcing its advent, would puzzle the man of 
science to determine which was the better. It shows 
the vague character of form in its relation to the voice 
of God in-as-much as the infant has only such speech 
as that directly revealed to it. That science is derived 
from the first cry of the infant, it does not prevent the 
cultivation of the form of expression if it leads toward 
the recognition of the common equity of humanity 
that has always been a revealed universal speech. 
What is good form or bad form compared to reality 
is as visionary as a dream. Form has no value except 



278 HUMAN EQUITY 

as a comparative means of communicating experience. 
A straight line is the symbol of perfection, it presents 
no feature of form ; the science of geometry is iden- 
tical to the science of form. Geometry can only be 
systematized by a strict regard for the straight line. 
It suggests a parallel between the perfection of God 
and the worship of form, to the exclusion of the Ab- 
solute that made the form possible. The line, square, 
angle and circle presents an indifference of compre- 
hension to the animal. The aptitude for acquiring 
knowledge confined to the human must always pre- 
cede the external effort to impart it. The fastidious 
objector thoroughly trained in negative formalities 
could insist that aptness could be imparted or taught 
by one person to another. A moment's thought would 
convince anyone who could think at all, that without 
the sense of understanding or power to comprehend, 
nothing of an intellectual character could be com- 
municated from one person to another. Still the de- 
votee of formality will continue to worship form after 
being thoroughly trained to the belief that intelli- 
gence is acquired in opposition to universal revelation. 
Because understanding is revealed and formality ac- 
quired, the choice between the worship of God and 
the worship of form is constantly present as long as 
the individual person is equipped with a will which 
no external influence can impart. Such influence be- 
ing strictly confined to the obstruction of the will by 
reason of the superficial attraction of formality. 

The worship of formality was a political conception 
of the pagans to sustain the authority of the few 
over the many. It was a rebellion against God of 
which future development proved that God's reveal- 



HUMAN EQUITY 279 

ing power was superior to the application of art to 
enslave the multitude. The virtue of a revealed idea 
compared to one acquired from reflex influence, sug- 
gests the necessity of form as the medium of com- 
munication. Thus we have revelation always pre- 
ceding the form and when the idea is clearly por- 
trayed the beneficence of God is in evidence supremely 
above any objection to the form in which the idea 
is expressed. That the form of expression does not 
contain a particle of sense value is the privilege of the 
individual to consider by virtue of his private judg- 
ment or whether a reverence for God under the most 
crude circumstances does not identify the inviolate 
relation between God, knowledge and man. 

It also suggests that the worship of form was the 
base of ancient heathenism prompted by the desire 
of the few to live in luxury upon the labor of slaves. 
The principle applies to modernism wherever scien- 
tific effort seeks to demonstrate a system by which 
the acquirements of form entitles a person to live com- 
fortably without earning it. To effect a success of 
this system, even temporarily form must be elevated 
by an appeal to the human desire to exist on the labor 
of others. In the absence of the ancient whip and 
chain, the producer of necessities is appealed to by 
ideal pictures of his children living in accord with 
the fairy tales of the East. The same ideal fancy 
prompted by scientific effort trys to lay the Scripture 
aside and build an ideal structure of acquired knowl- 
edge that will accommodate the human race above 
the base of drudgery. Any system, however, that 
wanders too far from its base of supplies is doomed 
to destruction by natural order. 



280 HUMAN EQUITY 

Besides, the common people are learning to shun 
the ideal attractions, for the flood of disappointments 
and the betrayal of confidence is a reality, and ideal 
prospects are constantly desolving into delusion ; dis- 
appointment teaches more wisdom than all the insti- 
tutions of learning in existence. 

The very limit of colleges and universities of learn- 
ing are strictly limited to form, not a particle of 
knowledge proper can be imparted by one person to 
another. It is this conflict between form and reality 
that establishes the rivalry between multitudes of sys- 
tems contending for the best form to attract the com- 
mon people, who always constitute the base of sup- 
plies upon which all systems depend for support. Just 
as fast as the common people comprehend the fact that 
science claims to develop knowledge, as a rival to the 
energy of God, while in reality science developes 
nothing, the people will withhold their support ; and 
no aggregation of humanity can exist upon scientific 
development without a base of supplies. It follows 
that any system that fails to make good what they 
advertise to do, patronage will gradually retire re- 
gardless of the specific forms, however, attractive. 

Since the legalized privilege of one man to own an- 
other in his own image the assistance of the civil 
power to enforce a system of servitude is confined to 
social ostracism or some specific form of attraction. 
The contempt for revelation or touch of God reflects 
the same purpose of the non-producers as that of the 
Egyptians in seeking to prevent the flight of the 
Israelites. As long as this purpose continues the 
same consequence will naturally follow. The scien- 
tific effort to establish intellectual acquirements as 



HUMAN EQUITY 28 I 

supreme over any direct knowledge of God presents 
the conflict between form and reality. The object is 
obvious, to effect by flattering attraction a voluntary 
service to replace the involuntary, since civilized na- 
tions were compelled to liberate their slaves. Free- 
dom, however, is dependent upon courage to earn it, 
for that reason the flattering prospect of obtaining a 
living without earning it, is equally as attractive to 
the weak as the strong. Any system based upon spe- 
cific formality presents an easier method of sustaining 
life than to contend with the fear that guards the gates 
to individual freedom. The fugitive slave fleeing from 
involuntary servitude illustrates the importance of in- 
dividual courage. The new era of contract labor is 
confronted with the necessity of courage to obtain in- 
dividual freedom, the only feature of life that is worth 
the living. 

The individual is nearer to God than any system or 
aggregation of individuals, subject, however, to the 
will, a universal personality. 

That is, man is not obliged to recognize God, which 
is equally balanced by the fact that no external author- 
ity can compel the individual to recognize him. Such 
a faculty as the will would be only an ideal figure of 
speech if external authority could control the indivi- 
dual choice of action. If there was no ideal figure of 
evil previously illustrated in opposition to a perfect 
straight line, to accommodate scientific formality, 
sterile passiveness would be a world of darkness that 
even ideal fancies would have no base upon which to 
build transient structures of finite formality. 

The individual choice, therefore, between revelation 
and external acquirements is as infinite as human ex- 



282 HUMAN EQUITY 

istence, which must first be conceived by the touch 
of God (revelation) before it can be disputed by those 
who choose to follow the dictation of formality, or 
the attractions of finite acquirements. However 
ignorant a man may be of the relation of form to 
reality or whatever state of credulity he may be pos- 
sessed with, the touch of God is never absent, while 
he can move a muscle. A private thought is supremely 
above the most brilliant form ever acquired, as much 
so as the touch of God is superior to any means of 
communication between man and man. The objec- 
tion to recognizing that the right of private judgment 
is a universal birthright is due to the evil of society 
which is just as much a contingency of individuality 
as birth itself. 

Society needs no protection that does not emanate 
from the individual, for, with due regard to the re- 
lation between man and God, society would be a 
dream in the absence of individual support. Degen- 
erate individuals establish the same condition of evil 
in society as its component parts are imbued with. 

The influence of disrespect for the direct relation of 
God in every individual thing that moves, degenerates 
the individual, when regeneracy becomes a necessity 
by reason of the preponderance of a revealed moral 
sense against the disposition to worship form. The 
fact that civilization ever rose a single degree above 
the corruption of society proves that God's relations 
with humanity are exclusively individual. Politics, 
system making and doctrines stimulated by agnostic 
science, have no more effect upon the private rela- 
tion between God and man than darkness would have 
in trying to control the light, simply because formal- 



HUMAN EQUITY 283 

ity can never transcend reality. A proposition for the 
scientific man to consider, is whether any system can 
be established on such a sandy foundation as a rela- 
tive form seeking to command the infinite energy upon 
which finite formality depends for its persistent ef- 
fort at self-destruction ; except for the renewal of vir- 
tue being constantly revealed to natural man. 

To meet any objection to the virtue of natural man, 
history is evidence that virtue latent in the base is the 
regenerating force that conquers the degenerate few 
seeking to destroy their own support. The fact that 
four fifths of the human race were slaves in complete 
subjugation to one fifth, 2000 years ago, illustrates 
the present vagueness of external form and the ac- 
quirements of the few, seeking to dominate the many 
who are endowed with direct revelation, a reality as 
infinite as the power of God. 

It is a very little that the individual can do except 
to protest against the pretentious negation of external 
precepts over the positive reality of internal concep- 
tion. The recognition of a clear title direct from God 
justifies any individual in refusing the external sen- 
timent of authority. To analyze abstract form would 
encompass space and time. Its relation to reality is 
limited to generalization, briefly, that form is the lit- 
eral medium always relative to experience which pre- 
cedes form. It is the straight line, the truth, between 
God and man. 



284 HUMAN EQUITY 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

POLITICAL DESPOTISM. 

ANY intermediate organization between man and 
his obligation for a conscious existence is a con- 
tempt for revealed intelligence. Pure consciousness 
is not a subject of political interpretation, it is an indi- 
vidual ego of a private communion of Spirit that no 
organized system can effect beyond a possible disso- 
lution or undue influence of an ideal character. The 
effort to transcend consciousness is the only principle 
upon which political despotism can exist. To con- 
vince an adult man that he is conscious would be 
absurd when he would have to be conscious to com- 
prehend the effort to convince him. 

To lead an individual away from his direct relation 
with God is the supporting feature of an interme- 
diate system between man and man and to assume 
that was the motive it could be maintained in reason 
because no other motive could be so vigorously sus- 
tained. Man must serve God either directly or indi- 
rectly in return for his living consciousness ; there is 
no escape other than suicide. This presents the op- 
portunity of political despotism to proffer false prom- 
ises and material attractions to accept an indirect 
service as a pretense to prospective happiness. No 
figure of speech can more effectually represent Satan 
than the word "policy. " It stands for every interme- 



HUMAN EQUITY 285 

diate system between man and his moral obligations. 
That is to say, whatever obstructs the direct privilege 
to commune with God directed by individual private 
judgment sets up a counter institution adverse to the 
supreme authority of God, call it by whatever name 
one may. 

A man may be so molded by influence as to become 
an epicurean nominalist to a high degree. Original 
ideas would be in contempt by reason of the attention 
being so strictly confined to abstract intelligence. 
That is, when a figure of speech becomes so attractive 
as to detract attention from reality it becomes a defect 
in proportion as nominalism becomes the controlling 
influence, obscuring the object or movement which it 
symbolized. 

To such a person a mediate principle would become 
an actual necessity and with that opinion firmly estab- 
lished no other would be entertained. It presents a 
situation of an abstract being extended by ideal spec- 
ulations until it embraced the concrete universe. A 
general design suggests a purpose and no word was 
ever coined to embrace the universal conduct of man 
in opposition to moral revelation, more fitting than 
"politics." The chronic objector could substitute the 
word "sin" for conduct with some show of reason, 
because conduct represents a dual character of both 
good and evil, while the record of political conduct 
will not warrant any conclusion of definite goodness. 

The general principle of government covers the 
universe ; it is divided to correspond with the visible 
and invisible ; for the present purpose, however, its 
relation to the physical and the Spiritual presents a 
distinct division of the general principle of govern- 



286 HUMAN EQUITY 

ment. This would present the political interpretation 
of government, but a strict regard for the exclusive 
privacy between God and man would include all gov- 
ernment in one. The physical, however, pertaining 
to the relation between man and man accommodates 
the desire to obtain the most for the least exertion, 
and by the aid of an intermediary system physical 
strength gives prominence to the delusion that might 
is right. This sentiment carries with it a multitude 
of delusions, the most prominent of which is, that 
artificial intelligence, the figurative and literal both, 
predominate over the natural and Spiritual. 

This presents a psychological impossibility, yet it 
forms the base of political despotism in proportion to 
the attraction of false promises with whatever force 
that can be secretly applied that will not endanger the 
system itself. The cardinal principle of government 
relates to man and his moral willingness to act in 
unison for the protection of all. There are two dis- 
tinct principles that determine the existence of a gov- 
ernment. One is the lack of confidence stimulating 
fear, and the other is the moral sense directly revealed 
to the individual ; in the absence of either state no 
form of government would be supported. It is im- 
portant to observe that a system of government as 
such, is an ideal image distinct from a reality. The 
only reality that can be properly applied to the prin- 
ciple of government is the supporting people, not un- 
like the pillars and posts of an artificial structure 
wholly dependent upon support to counteract the in- 
finite principle of gravitation belonging to the realm 
of God. It is both idle and ideal to search for a justi- 
fication of the external government exercising author- 



HUMAN EQUITY 287 

ity over its own supports. Without this protective 
feature of a government it would scarcely continue 
for a single season. 

Whatever structure intervenes between the indi- 
vidual and government proper represents the science 
of selfishness. It is a sub-government in precept but 
supreme in practice. If it is a moral necessity to 
maintain a representative system between the people 
and a protective government, it would be a fraud if 
the intervening system was less protective than the 
government proper. Political systems divided and 
sub-divided do not effect the general principle of 
patronizing a deputy in the performance of a duty 
which the individual could the better perform him- 
self. It can be observed by any individual in the 
entire absence of scientific training, whether his 
knowledge of God is directly revealed or indirectly 
communicated by others in his own image, to whom 
direct revelation must have been a fact or none could 
be indirectly imparted. This effort to maintain a 
specific revelation in distinction to its being universal 
to each and every individual, is the only prop that 
political despotism has for support. 

If theology is obliged to consort with political 
despotism it must continue more political than re- 
ligious, for the very incentive of a political organiza- 
tion is to be either in supreme command or striving for 
that end. History is good evidence that political 
despotism was never a companion of religion except 
the political was recognized to be in authority. All 
written languages give evidence of political supervi- 
sion, for the apparent purpose of subjugating the peo- 
ple. The political interpretation of Scripture is held 



288 HUMAN EQUITY 

to the present time to be above the private judgment 
of the individual; yet one could search the Scripture 
in vain to find any intervening interpretation neces- 
sary between the individual and the direct rendering of 
the Book itself. 

"Higher criticism," assisted by scientific effort to 
maintain political despotism, would dispose of the 
Bible entirely. The sacred right of private judgment 
founded on a clear title from God that none can dis- 
pute without betraying their own title equally clear, 
permits of whatever observation the judgment may 
dictate. It could be observed, therefore, that science 
and politics consort as the enemy of personal revela- 
tion or any individual independence that excludes the 
external supremacy of the object over the subject; 
even theology is treated as a science by political sages. 
Individual man or collective systems molded to a con- 
dition of supple obedience to external authority will 
support any attractive prospect that is labeled by poli- 
tical sagacity, as scientific or theological. 

The science of despotism includes all that is evil in 
man's conduct. The blanket term "politics" covers 
the entire disposition in man to feast upon the weak- 
ness of others in his own image. The system has 
descended from piracy, slavery, and absolute govern- 
ment claimed by its human officials to be directly ap- 
pointed to exercise an external authority over indivi- 
dual conduct; including even the effort to deprive a 
man of his private judgment and inculcate such 
thoughts as political authority decrees. If modern 
politics appear to be less severe than the ancient type 
it is due to a greater sagacity; and more difficulty in 
obtaining supporters. The general principle to op- 



HUMAN EQUITY 289 

press the weak until they are forced to support the 
system involved, is the very ground principle of all 
politics. 

To promise everything and perform only such acts 
as will benefit the organization is the inner working 
of any policy that depends upon secrecy for its main 
support, the modern form of piracy, and slavery. 
Piracy in the sense that it destroys human life 
from disappointed expectations, prompted by poli- 
tical promises ; a slow process of murder even worse 
than the ancient method of "walking the plank." 
Slavery by reason of the most relentless demand for 
an acknowledgment of external or objective authority 
so distinctly anti-Christian that the wonder is, that 
any intelligent man can combine the sentiment of 
Christianity and politics to the extent of trying to 
serve both systems. A reverence for God and a strict 
obedience to a civil government are no better pre- 
served by submitting to an intervening proxy, par- 
ticularly when it could be observed that the general 
character of mediating bodies is, not to recognize any 
authority superior to their own. Also when a political 
organization declares that God is unknown, no better 
inference could be drawn, than to observe such a de- 
claration to mean that the organization was infallible. 
Any neglect to acknowledge God would reflect the 
same conclusion. 

The application of politics to a civil government 
would be defended by any adherent of the system. 
It implies the unfitness of the people at large to com- 
prehend immanent requirements. This involves the 
innate revelation of self-consciousness in conflict with 
external authority to enforce a submission to sub-re- 



29O HUMAN EQUITY 

velation which established a deputy of communication 
between man and any government he is in duty bound 
to submit to after accepting its protective benefit. It 
is too dogmatic at the present time to defend a unity 
of civil government with the Spiritual. The two dis- 
tinct conditions can only be connected by an ideal 
bridge capable of being extended to the limit of time 
and space. The real Truth that man has to submit to 
which does not involve the will, is revelation, an in- 
dividual possibility exclusive of artificial, or any ex- 
ternal authority which would embrace political des- 
potism. 

There is no better evidence of the disrespect for the 
direct relation between God and man than the political 
effort to cultivate a higher form of written language. 
No moralist, independent of any political alliance, can 
show that one form of written language is more moral 
than another without denying revelation proper to be 
the universal principle of all language. If the mere 
acquiring of a higher form of language makes a 
higher type of man, it does not effect any change in 
the infinite character of revelation. In thus pretend- 
ing to elevate form above reality, it discloses the in- 
congruity of man seeking to demonstrate that an in- 
tervening method devised by the will of man is nec- 
essary to convince a sentient being that he is self-con- 
scious ; a revelation in the absence of which it would 
make the external imparting of a relative form of re- 
velation impossible. 

With this fact in view of which no sentient being 
can be ignorant, the motive is clear in cultivating a 
higher form of written language, for the sole pur- 
pose of taking advantage of illiteracy, which is often 
called ignorance; but ignorance having no knowledge 



HUMAN EQUITY 29 1 

of political despotism is a virtue in comparison to the 
most skilful literalist, who would defend a higher 
form of language to mislead the innocent. Because 
it can be accomplished is a weak excuse for pre- 
tending that society has no firmer foundation than 
the support of a language so difficult to obtain that it 
is practically secret Secrecy is the very essence of 
a policy which practically betrays the confidence of 
the credulous, by parading a scheme which implies a 
belief that everybody can obtain a living without earn- 
ing it. This mysterious influence of acquired skill 
was derived from the feeble efforts of the most primi- 
tive races, which shows distinctly the universal dis- 
position of man to take whatever advantage of each 
other that could be obtained by secrecy. The policy 
of maintaining a scientific language is the present 
method of trying to be mysterious, and also mysti- 
fying a common inheritance to a clear title in a direct 
revelation, no less than the sense of feeling, which is 
a knowledge that no man has ever been able to prove 
he could impart to another. 

A political system that could not defend itself as a 
necessity to the salvation of society could not attract 
supporters to maintain itself for any great length of 
time. It proves that the natural desire of man must 
be appealed to before patronage or attention can be 
obtained. It is not the quackish style of argument 
that establishes a confidence in political pretensions, 
but a universal desire for social relations of a har- 
monious character. It enables an eloquent idealist to 
present the most dire disaster if his suggestions are 
not followed to the letter; and what appears to be a 
defence of society, is more an agitation of a disturb- 
ing character than a necessity. That is, without the 



292 HUMAN EQUITY 

desire for society the most eloquent defender of a 
mediating policy could not effect such desire. 

After the Revoluionary war against the political des- 
potism of England, the echo of the cannon had scarcely 
ceased to vibrate, when the political parasite swarmed 
upon the tender sprout of popular government; and 
the civil government has yet to be born that will be 
obliged to recognize popular opinion as the crowning 
glory of man's independence of a proxy to acknowl- 
edge God a universal right that depends upon free- 
dom and courage. It is no argument in favor of an 
intermediate necessity because man is "dependent upon 
his environment" as Drummond puts it. The point 
is, what is man responsible for, or why a government, 
if man by reason of being dependent is forever doomed 
to be a prey to parasites? While any change is better 
than no change, for which the natural activity of man 
is accountable, yet there must have been some logical 
reason, or there would not have been any inception of 
a revolt against England merely to exchange one 
brood of parasites for another. If it had not been for 
the innate desire for freedom, the very essence of 
Christianity, there would not have been any war. In 
fact, no occasion for war would exist. 

Political despotism, therefore, in whatever disguise, 
is the obstruction to human progress. Material pro- 
gress is a delusion when more labor is wasted in try- 
ing to maintain useless obstruction to real progress, 
than would sustain the entire human race in all the 
necessities of life. Men who will fight for prospective 
freedom, will by the same rule labor for the support 
of themselves and also society. If only an animal in- 
stinct, it would be at least honest, in comparison to 
scientific stealing. 



HUMAN EQUITY 293 



CHAPTER XXXII. 



POPULAR OPINION. 



PUBLIC opinion derives its principal strength from 
the prerogatives of the past. It appears to em- 
brace popular opinion which is of more modern im- 
portance since the advent of America. Between the 
public utterance of human thought and silent medita- 
tion the scholasticism of the past shows no evidence 
of concern. The populace were considered to be con- 
signed to submission by virtue of divine decree. This 
would be a natural conclusion of any class of people 
who also held that the power to enforce submission 
was directed by some invisible authority. 

A careful study by an observer of what pertains to 
the popular distinction to what is public, would show 
there was a silent opinion from which the public are 
excluded. It would confound the subject to permit 
a public declaration to cover the entire popular 
thought by a vague assertion that popularity to be 
such would also be public. The sacredness of personal 
opinion is inseparable from revelation, since no form 
of phraseology can effect a system of thinking or 
speaking that is not derived from revelation. Whether 
general, special, or both, the persistency of private 
opinions, however numerous, is parallel to the privacy 
of the individual. 

Public opinion expressed by scientific language is 



294 HUMAN EQUITY 

just as dependent upon an audience as an individual 
is for the oxygen in the air. The audience is the 
populace from whom the public performers derive their 
stimulus of existence. This rivalry between nominal- 
ism and reality has furnished the base of discussion 
since the faculty of speech was first revealed to man. 
Stealing or abstract ideas will never become popular 
until public opinion can convince the entire aggrega- 
tion of humanity that every person is a thief. 

Public opinion, science, and political pretensions are 
dogmatically objective to subjective personality. 
From this inflexible situation it could be observed 
that the individual, subject including an aggregation 
i f subjects in harmony, which would constitute popu- 
lar opinion, would be equally as inflexible as external 
influences. That is, public opinion is objective to pop- 
ular opinion which to be such properly is always sub- 
jective. When terms are used out of the ordinary 
custom, it should be observed that subjective defence 
against objective aggression, is an equal privilege 
with the aggressor to employ such terms as will make 
the comparative method of conveying thought equally 
as clear to the object addressed. 

It is probable that less than one person in a thou- 
sand and even some holding college diplomas could 
give an unqualified analysis of scientific language. To 
cultivate its abstruseness can have only one purpose, 
to so classify society as to justify external authority 
over the inner man. This would discount any pros- 
pect of a popular government from ever becoming a 
reality, it would make a vote as useless as air, with 
no subject to inhale its virtue. Abstract sciences can 
never embrace the source of their own development, 



HUMAN EQUITY 295 

such as revealed speech and the sentient ability to 
comprehend it. In connection with the revealed 
Truth it should not be neglected to observe that in- 
vention and discovery precede science, which has no 
tinge of reality except its subjective surroundings ; as 
an independent object it has no logical existence. 

Since popular government took root from the mere 
paper declaration of human equity, political intrigue 
against the infinite character of revelation or personal 
consciousness, supports science to confound a person's 
confidence in revealed existence. A man devoted to 
a single branch of science to effect a predetermined 
end, mistakes his select branch for a philosophical 
unity of all sciences which are inseparable from a de- 
pendence upon each other. The defence of any sys- 
tem or doctrine depending upon its aggregate support, 
patronizes the principle of public opinion with com- 
plete indifference to popular opinion. The words 
"public" and "popular" are used so interchangeably 
that public opinion, like a single branch of science, 
claims to be all the opinion there is. 

Popular sovereignty was born in America, a mere 
figure of speech on paper ; it had the effect to stimulate 
the ambition of the populace to an extent that no na- 
tion had ever witnessed before. A single vote ex- 
pressed the power of a King. Yet this paper declara- 
tion of sovereignty had to be defended by a war 
eighty years after popular sovereignty was recognized 
by a despotic sovereign; since then a distinction be- 
tween popular opinion and public opinion continues to 
be a subject in abeyance. Washington barely saved 
the new-born nation from establishing an American 
monarchy. Public opinion made all the noise which 



296 HUMAN EQUITY 

so frightened John Adams who scarcely ever heard 
the noise of a cannon that he was convinced that any- 
thing so popular as individual sovereignty would be 
dangerous as a governing system. In case of war, 
however, it is a historical fact that the individual or 
populace were patronized to an extent that reflects 
the hypocrisy of public opinion during the period of 
peace. That is, when no service was needed from 
the polulace they were consigned to a condition of 
ignominy by the minority, which practically repre- 
sented public opinion as the ruling power of a Re- 
public as much so as an absolute monarchy. 

England was more generous to her colonies than 
its own Continental Congress, for the reason that she 
recognized an independence from monarchy minus a 
condition that the Congress representing the people 
would be equally generous. To enter deeply into the 
conduct of Continental Congress would present a sub- 
ject distinct from popular opinion. It is only to the 
extent that it relates to the public and popular that the 
reference is made to such familiar history. Human 
imperfection is a weak apology for conduct equival- 
ent to perjury. Men who signed a declaration of 
purpose recognizing human equity in perfect accord 
with Scripture could show no other reason for chang- 
ing their minds than the opportunity to do it. A 
panegyric effusion of public opinion will never efface 
the stain upon a body of men for showing an indif- 
ference to a popular opinion that was only recognized 
by the discovery of the opportunity to ignore a pop- 
ulace after immediate service was no longer required. 
It was enough so far as the progress of America was 
concerned that popular opinion was so far enlight- 



HUMAN EQUITY 297 

ened as to realize how much more important it was 
than public sentiment that only rises to the surface 
like bubbles confined in the water. 

The incongruity of a body of men disfranchising any 
portion of the populace from whom their own election 
was obtained, while they bowed to the humble ack- 
nowledgment of being "servants" to the people. By 
a coincident effect tacitly conformed to by the popular 
enthusiasm in the United colonies of America for the 
recognition of popular sovereignty by England, it was 
scarcely observed that their "servants would be more 
difficult to deal with than their previous master." 

That silence gives consent was never better illus- 
trated than when the Constitution of the United 
States was ratified by only one twentieth of the pop- 
pulation being permitted to vote. It was the prin- 
ciple rather than the effect that concerns the pres- 
ent, for it is doubtless a matter of indifference to even 
popular opinion whether liberty was bestowed upon 
the Continental Congress or whether it bestowed 
liberty on the people. What is more important at 
present to consider is, that no form of government has 
ever existed in the past that did not have a definite 
authority for its existence. Thus if the United States 
is yet only a purpose as it was declared in opposition 
to England, the only foundation its legitimacy rests 
upon is public opinion. Such foundations have been 
extremely sandy in the past which made it impera- 
tive to acknowledge divine influence. As a directing 
influence God could not be a factor in conjunction 
with public opinion, in-as-much as public opinion 
would be the directing influence of the voter ; in which 
case God would be eliminated from the individual as 



298 HUMAN EQUITY 

far as a civil government was concerned. It would 
also follow that so-called popular suffrage is just as 
much a farce at present as when the United States 
Constitution was ratified. 

To anticipate possible objections to an individual's 
opinion would reflect the same contempt for popular 
sovereignity as public opinion has continued to mani- 
fest since the formation of the present government. 

Commercial interests were so diversified in the Am- 
erican colonies that the general personnel of their first 
Congress should be considered in connection with the 
circumstances. These circumstances are only referred 
to as a compartive method relating to the general 
principle of a civil government, and its co-ordinate 
existence with the invisible, which the agnostic and 
scientist seek to brush away by the fiat declaration — 
"unknowable." As an exhibition of conduct between 
man and man, Continental Congress has no equal by 
any previous body of men that the world had ever 
witnessed before. It certainly persisted in the sublime 
principle of human equity. Its precepts were a re- 
cognition of popular opinion while in practice it was 
found that public opinion, practically human selfish- 
ness, was an opponent that even England could not 
conquer at home. 

The agnostic with his science,, overlooks an im- 
portant feature relative to the freedom of conduct. 
It has to be earned in face of opposition. It would be 
absurd to even consider a free will that entailed a re- 
ponsibility for external influences. It reduces a so- 
called Republic to even more than a paradox when 
it assumes an authority over individual opinion when 
its declared purpose is to protect such opinion. Re- 



HUMAN EQUITY 299 

duced to an ultimate conclusion, it would make re- 
velation (experience) a mere subject of symbolism 
that any government could insist upon by its mili- 
tant power to enforce its decree. That it really acts 
from theocratic precedent, while it also patronizes the 
support of the populace by a pretension that the popu- 
lace is privileged, by a paper Constitution that is more 
remarkable for symbolism than the purpose to recog- 
nize any possibility of what must be termed natural 
intelligence (revealed), simply because no other term 
can express the kind of intelligence whether revealed 
or acquired. That this is the very point at issue which 
could be clear and simple to the natural man, it would 
be equally a blank to the conscientious man sincerely 
convicted by artificial acquirements. 

This simple proposition could be readily explained 
by a scientific man affiliating with public opinion, for 
the natural man has been so long ignored for his de- 
ficiency in artificial acquirements, that illiteracy is 
symbolized as ignorance. It follows as an ultimate 
conclusion, if logos (speech) logic (pure thinking) 
has any virtue, that revelation is subordinate to ac- 
quirements ; if art can transcend nature, making re- 
ligion subjective to scientific theology, also the science 
of government (politics), the government in reality, 
would practically disinfranchise the voter or destroy 
every effect of individual opinion. Latent virtue 
would be subjective to the conduct of man as a mere 
plaything. Also the form of speech (literal) would 
supersede itself. Besides literal revelation would de- 
feat the advent of Christ, remarkable for the exempli- 
fication of Spiritual revelation ; and in conclusion 
public opinion would reign supreme over popular 



300 HUMAN EQUITY 

opinion, making human equity and Christian unity- 
impossible, simply because public opinion is the 
enemy of popular opinion. 

If mere words are properly subjective to conven- 
tionality, the practical force of public opinion will de- 
stroy any necessity for such a word as popular in so 
far as it relates to any system of government. Pop- 
ular opinion was never recognized by public sentiment 
as a figure of speech even, until the occurrence of the 
pretentious efforts of the American colonies in defy- 
ing monarchy and theocracy — the public opinion of 
the entire world. It was like David's combat with 
Goliath, and if this illustration was compared to the 
influence of public opinion upon popular opinion, it 
could be observed that public sentiment is an artifi- 
cial effect in opposition to the natural and popular. 
It would also show as a mere allegorical figure that 
the natural cannot be overpowered by art. It would 
raise a question in defence of public opinion, why the 
populace, allowing they are supreme, submits to pub- 
lic sentiment? Simply because Nature, or God, does 
not permit of gathering fruit immediately the seed 
begins to sprout. If public opinion wins in America 
over the latent virtue of popular opinion it will be its 
first victory since letters were invented. Opinions 
are prior to letters which are the weapons of objec- 
tive influence, seductive, however, in comparison to 
natural revelation and individual experience, from 
which source popular opinion is developed from the 
inner out, but never from external authority, not- 
withstanding public sentiment to the contrary. 

The accommodating character of symbols gives a 
superficial advantage of art over Nature. Whether it 



HUMAN EQUITY 3OI 

is superficial and also an ideal delusion it may or may 
not be satisfactorily proved by accommodating words, 
that it involves opinions affirmative and negative is 
the point at issue. 

It is very ambiguous to speak of an honest man or 
a dishonest man. It is only permitted by custom, for 
man is the glory of God entirely distinct from the 
relative conduct of man in communication with each 
other. God considered as supreme energy, requires no 
assistance from an individual who has no respect for 
the counterpart of his own image. The unit of hu- 
manity is not complete until he comprehends the 
sublime principle of the diversity of opinions. The 
man who looks down upon the primitive opinions of 
those he elects as inferiors, will only echo the opin- 
ions of those he considers above him. It would be 
too vague a proposition to consider whether a man 
looking up for opinions to bestow upon those he 
looks down upon, has a clear comprehension of a real 
opinion or not. A real thought is a revelation in op- 
position to the pictorial formula of communication. 
It requires very little study to observe that revela- 
tion is from God direct, while indirectly it is figura- 
tively transmitted. Thus to choose the acquired as a 
guiding principle would require some additional reve- 
lation before a real opinion could be comprehended. 

An opinion is usually considered as an acquired 
idea. It becomes extremely vague when its relation 
to revelation is considered, providing, however, that 
revelation is also treated as an acquirement. Regard- 
less of what word is used to symbolize a fact or an 
opinion, man is prior to what he acquires, hence this 
priority cannot be destroyed by the mere defining of 



302 HUMAN EQUITY 

words, such as revelation, experience, conception, etc. 
It presents a spontaneous fact of an intrinsic char- 
acter that the word "acquired" does not meet, because, 
to acquire, implies something externally imparted, 
while the word revelation relates more definitely to 
the power of conception, which could properly be ob- 
served as existing before conception could be possi- 
ble. Hence an opinion is the subject of choice be- 
tween internal revelation or external acquirement. Its 
application to the privilege of voting is important, for 
it must be exercised from either external influence or 
internal revelation. Now the propability (approxi- 
mative) is a hundred to one that popular opinion in 
meditative silence is superior to any effort of public 
opinion to mold it to a condition of submission to ex- 
ternal authority. Intelligence is either revealed (nat- 
ural) or acquired (artificial). It would be an exploit 
of wisdom for a scientific man of an inquiring turn of 
mind to determine how long it will take public opin- 
ion to completely subdue popular opinion. 



HUMAN EQUITY 303 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 



THE COLORED RACE. 



A SINCERE inquirer for the Truth would not ex- 
clude anything that presented itself as an object 
of observation. Science has not entire jurisdiction 
over the realm of infinitude. It is confined to ab- 
stractions and finite conditions. It could not be a rea- 
sonable object of abstraction unless all its branches 
could be enclosed in a philosophical whole. That is 
to say, an abstraction could not be more than the 
whole from which it is abstracted. To defend an ab- 
stract position on the ground that it is the highest de- 
velopment of Knowledge to the extent of excluding 
a knowledge of God presents an impossibility of any 
fulfillment of Scripture. 

There is nothing connected with human conduct 
more important than to know what is true ; and a civi- 
lized regard for the word know is to recognize that to 
know is the Truth, the only method known by which 
the truth can be known. The Truth in connection 
with the race problem demands in common courtesy 
a study of what the colored man has to say in his 
own defence. This can only be done consistently by 
waiving any predetermined convictions relating to ex- 
ternal authority over innate conceptions (revela- 
tion). Xo question can be put to a colored man more 
pertinent than to ask him : Do you know God ? The 



304 HUMAN EQUITY 

best proof is to ask him without qualifications. It is 
a practical observation that if he answers directly he 
will say, yes. However diverse the circumstances it 
is always the same answer; it therefore excludes any 
preconcerted action. What does it signify? It refutes 
any scientific effort to demonstrate that God is "un- 
known." To enter into particulars involving an ulti- 
mate proof it would exhaust space and time. It is 
sufficient for the present purpose, to observe that a 
free man so recognized legally (externally) and also 
Spiritually (internally) has a self-conscious right to 
declare what he knows. For an external object in the 
image of a man, to declare it was evidence without 
proof it would reflect the universal dispute between 
man and man. 

There is such an impassable difference between 
man's relation with God and his conduct in relation 
to external influences that dogmatic doctrines spring 
up like weeds to choke civilization. If external auth- 
ority could predominate over conception there would 
be nothing for science to seek, or theology to regen- 
erate. When a person insists upon proof in opposi- 
tion to an individual declaration that he knows God, 
it would necessitate some rule by which a demand for 
proof was based upon. It would present a state of 
equity since a person could be as reasonably called 
upon to prove the rule, or from what prompting of 
thought he should demand proof of a personal dec- 
laration from the person making the declaration. If 
a man does not know what the word "God" signifies 
without external influence he would be equally blind 
to any influence that depended upon some innate fac- 
ulty of conception. Hence if the proof depended upon 



HUMAN EQUITY 305 

some rule of conduct involving obedience to external 
influence, it would be absurd to demand a proof of ex- 
ternal influence over which the subject had no auth- 
ority. 

To make it still plainer, no person could be justly- 
held responsible for a declaration and also obliged to 
be obedient to an external rule formulated by some 
authority whether subjective or objective. To recog- 
nize the principle of authority when subjective obe- 
dience is involved, the external intrudes upon the prin- 
ciple of private judgment. The aggressor would in 
reason be obliged to prove by what authority he could 
either make or adopt rules to regulate the conduct of 
those he would not recognize to be a party to the 
forming of them. 

The real question, by inference, for the Truth is not 
involved in a finite demand for proof, is whether God 
or any infinite directing influence exists objectively 
distinct from the subjective, or external authority 
over internal conception. The proportion of colored 
in the entire human race is about three-quarters to 
one-quarter white. It has no significance beyond the 
observation that the preponderance of weight and 
numbers individually would make the declaration, 
"yes" largely predominate over a negative knowledge 
of God. To quibble about symbols, would betray a 
person's lack of intelligence either natural or ac- 
quired, for speech, thought, and reason were, and are, 
prior to any formula of literal communication. 
Therefore, if a person did not understand a question 
he would more naturally say so, that to answer, yes, 
to a question he did not understand. 

The mere matter of numbers does not prove the re- 






306 



HUMAN EQUITY 



lation between external influence and internal con- 
ception, since to know must be the Truth irrespective 
of what is known. If a white man or a colored man 
declares that he knows, it is of the first importance, 
compared to what he knows, for when a man knows, 
it signifies something known. To know therefore, 
must either be God, or the external pretension of an 
objective God distinct from the individual concep- 
tion of knowing is more ideal than real. To view this 
sacred relation between God and man, exclusively 
from any dogmatic effort to confine the knowledge of 
God to literal transmission, there is no better oppor- 
tunity than what the 10,000,000 colored people pre- 
sent in the United States. No such body of people 
were ever permitted to exercise religious liberty com- 
pletely divorced from State influence. Even its indi- 
rect relation derived from secular education is in no 
sense directed by state supervision. Again, the most 
practical method of obtaining facts, is to confer with 
the colored people directly and learn what they claim 
to know about it. The effort of white people to su- 
pervise the development of the colored race is a vain 
pretension to disguise the real purpose, which is to 
hold them in a state of subjugation to the white 
people. 

The reason the negro was originally enslaved, was 
because he had no knowledge of the artificial meth- 
ods of defence. The same situation, equally applies 
to the white race. Artificial intelligence has always 
been and is now the oppressor of the natural. It re- 
flects an abnormal condition of a student to be so 
strictly confined to a rule in studying the conduct of 
natural man, for the lowest type of humanity must 



HUMAN EQUITY 307 

be included in what the symbols "God" and "man" 
relate to. According to political rules the real es- 
sence of what pertains to God and man could not pos- 
sibly be considered with a just regard for a square 
deal or respect for pure equity. If a person insists 
upon the external imparting of morality including a 
knowledge of God, he treats the universal principle of 
private judgment with contempt. Because such a 
person would be obliged to exemplify the natural 
right of private judgment, and to deny the same right 
to others, with no other authority but a political rule 
or conventional custom ; it would be a display of ego- 
ism, that in comparison, a natural man of the lowest 
order would be altruistic. That is to say, if the effort 
to maintain objective authority is to obtain subjec- 
tive obedience, the real purpose destroys any good 
purpose that might be apparent on the surface. 

Good and evil are confounded with external influ- 
ence which is extremely misleading since the principle 
of imitation is so accommodating to people indiffer- 
ent to their own ability, while resting contented to 
have their thinking done for them or satisfied with 
what is really made. Since it is generally admitted 
that the influence of evil is more attractive than good- 
ness, it should in justice to the negro be observed that 
the virtue of direct knowledge is more representative 
of goodness than external influence in which evil pre- 
dominates. The negro is subject to the example of 
the white people, and admitting he is the lower type 
of humanity he would be more likely to imitate the 
whites than presume to set them an example. Yet 
strange to say. an unprejudiced person might readily 
observe many characteristics of the negro that the 



308 HUMAN EQUITY 

whites could emulate with no sacrifice of moral con- 
duct. The negro is not aggressive, also slow to 
anger, which could be attributed to lack of courage, 
the principal reason why he was so readily enslaved 
in striking contrast with the American Indians, who 
committed suicide before they would submit to the 
white man. In the absence of responsibility even the 
white race is not remarkable for thrift, and it is not 
strange that continual oppression will promote indo- 
lence. The main question, however, is the relation of 
the negro to God, and the fact that no legal restraint 
is exercised over his religious disposition ; it presents 
a situation of a semi-civilized character that has no 
parallel in history. It is a reproof to the caste sys- 
tem of society that reflects the virtue of natural reli- 
gion in contrast with a so-called revealed religion 
which would also be embraced in the natural, except 
for the polity of institutions trying to maintain the 
false sentiment of the object over the subject. 

It is extremely popular to maintain the sentiment 
of external supervision over introspection ; tor that 
reason, to recognize a direct knowledge of God, it 
would admit of a universal equity of humanity in dis- 
cord with cupidity which is more evident in the so- 
called cultured, than in the credulous character of 
the negro. According to Sully, who is a radical psy- 
chologist: "To apprehend the sentiment and convic- 
tions of an ancient Roman or of an uncivilized African 
is a very delicate operation." So delicate, in fact, 
that the private relation between individual man and 
God has never been touched by either science or art. 
Because credulity has always been the prey of cu- 
pidity it does not prove it is right, any more than the 



HUMAN EQUITY 309 

science of robbery which is equally as ancient and 
durable. There is not room enough in the boundary 
of any nation or institution to maintain a dual form 
of government, one form by declaration and the op- 
posite by practice. For instance : To recognize the 
individual private judgment, including the freedom of 
religion, and also maintain, in sentiment at least, a 
political power "behind the throne" that practically 
reduces every voter to a condition of subjugation, in 
perfect accord with Sully's sentiments. Utterly con- 
trary, however, to the teachings of Christ. 

A common remark applied subjectively to an object 
addressed, possibly a negro. "Freedom is not li- 
cense" : but to recognize that man has a clear title to 
freedom direct from God, it would be a nonentity and 
absurd for a man objectively to declare that Spiritual 
freedom was only bestowed on condition that it was 
endorsed by external authority. Hence if God has 
not the power to reveal Himself without being sub- 
jective to some objective licensing of an overruling 
character, it would present an anomaly that would 
confound any language that science or art could es- 
tablish. 

The threadbare excuse for the necessity of external 
influence with authority to counteract the evil dispo- 
sition supposed to be inherent, is being rapidly ex- 
posed by the colored man. The principle of governing 
the colored people in the United States is based upon 
the fear of the white man. It is doubtless a salutary 
condition for the redemption of anyone who defies 
punishment against the culmination of evil for ma- 
terial gratification. The colored man is becoming fa- 
miliar with these axioms of conduct, and the very ef- 






3io 



HUMAN EQUITY 



fort to keep the negro in subjective obedience is re- 
sulting adversely, for it stimulates an ambition for im- 
provement and self-reliance. By giving attention to 
the negro in his own defence one can learn more in 
one day than reading literature for a year upon the 
subject. The generality, against any improvement of 
either white or colored. That is to say, it is more 
profitable to conserve cupidity than to enlighten 
credulity. 

The colored people are being educated regardless 
of the opposition of the whites. Besides, they are more 
observing than published reports give them credit. 
They realize their advantage, and what appears to be 
indifference, is in reality a habit of reticence inher- 
ited from the influence of slavery. They know they 
are free, and the teachers of their own race are 
united in counseling amity toward the whites ; but 
their special interest in history is very noticeable, 
showing a retentative memory that no race excels. It 
is remarkably conspicuous that the colored man feels 
no obligation toward the whites at large for freedom. 
They refuse to be considered wards of the white man. 
Thus the present situation is unique, for no people in 
the world understand the nature of freedom better 
than they do. They know the whites are powerless 
to dictate their religion or education, having no legal 
method of enforcing it. This constitutes a sentiment 
of vanity in the jealous observation of the political 
faction of the whites supported by the conventionality 
of society. 

The malicious literature that is hurled at them they 
read with a smile of benevolence toward the whites, 
for they are well informed of the immoral conduct of 



HUMAN EQUITY 31 I 

the whites. Their efforts may appear presumptive 
and extremely ideal, but they no sooner commence to 
read than they attempt, at least, according to what 
primitive means they have at hand to shun the ex- 
ample of the whites. This is purely the effect of what 
natural freedom reveals. However slow their prog- 
ress may be, they certainly show by their own dec- 
laration that they trust God more fully than they do 
any proffered assistance of the whites. The tempta- 
tion to follow the conventionall example of the whites 
is to them the equal privilege of freedom, which their 
keen sensitiveness to being treated as inferiors attest. 
It is of slight importance to them what public opin- 
ion represents in regard to their social and political 
standing, for they are clannish in a marked degree, 
seeking to shun the whites rather than intrude upon 
them. The few exceptions are greedily grasped for 
political effect, which stimulates their exclusiveness, 
more to their benefit than their injury. They present 
a parallel to the Israelites' trust in God while fleeing 
from oppression. 

The real fact is, the colored people of the United 
States present a rebuke to the scientific folly of mod- 
ernism, in opposition to natural virtue, and natural 
education as opposed to the artificial, and the exter- 
nal effort to transcend revelation by scientific agnos- 
ticism. They will abridge every attempt to deprive 
them of the freedom of religion and education, of 
which they are never tired of asserting. With the 
vast territory of the South for the colored people to 
exploit their faith and hope, with even charity for 
the whites, they are becoming too formidable to be 
imposed upon. The better part of valor, therefore, 



312 HUMAN EQUITY 

would be to let them alone. To encourage them will 
be less dangerous than to pursue a course of misrep- 
resentation that they know to be false. If this is a 
"white man's government," it would be well to verify 
it by example, for the whole world is becoming Chris- 
tianized every day. 

It is no less important to observe that science and 
art are abstract effects that in the light of reason can 
never transcend the source from which they were ab- 
stracted. The principle embraces the psychological 
effort to show that external tuition predominates over 
revealed intuition which does not accord with human 
equity. The political misrepresentation of what reve- 
lation means, also confounds the relation of artificial 
education to the natural. If Nature is not perfect, 
Art has never been able to prove anything else to 
be more perfect. Revelation is a spontaneous effect 
that should never be confounded with acquirements. 
All the evidence necessary is to know it by intro- 
spection, (to use a scientific term). Human conduct 
is a finite condition over which the infinite has no di- 
recting influence by reason of the privilege of the will 
to choose between good and evil. It also presents a 
reason why external authority is constantly trying 
to predominate over the power of God. 



HUMAN EQUITY 313 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 



IDEAL SPECULATION. 



THE ideal is natural reality. In the absence of a 
sacrifice or a yielding disposition, progress would 
be chained to conventional orthodoxy. Progress must 
break these chains as a fugitive from slavery, because 
Nature insists upon human activity ; not in prede- 
termined lines, which would be parallel to passive 
sterility. Hence the fugitive fleeing from slavery, or 
the inventor must in both cases defy external opposi- 
tion, for that is the task he undertakes to perform. 
That such a task is prompted by spontaneous revela- 
tion, history stands sponsor. 

Science steals from the natural to foster cupidity, 
since whatever is acquired, without a corresponding 
exchange of value, is stealing. It should be observed, 
tentatively if necessary, that the word "revelation" is 
not considered in this writing to relate to an acquire- 
ment, or gift, for the reason stated, that science steals 
from the natural to foster cupidity ; and Nature is a 
myth if it does not embrace ideal thought and revela- 
tion in an inseparable oneness. The ideal cannot be 
acquired any more than the rose can acquire its fra- 
grance. There is no literal authority for revelation, 
for the reason that it is identical with God. Hence 
when an incarnate being knows he is in communion 
with God, his only obligation is to God rather than 



314 HUMAN EQUITY 

to any interposing- demand for authority from a finite 
being representing another counterpart of incarnate 
being. Finte being, by reason of incarnation, and in- 
finite by reason of knowing it( spontaneous revela- 
tion). For one person to require an authority of an- 
other who declares he knows, would be an assertion 
of superiority, an extreme egoism, that human equity 
in the sight of God could never submit to conscien- 
tiously however convenient it might be to do so ex- 
ternally. 

In the sense that ideal speculation is a privilege of 
individual revelation, it is up to rational common 
sense to show why one person can employ his ideal 
faculty to dispute the existence of a like faculty in an- 
other. To admit that man is only an agent, or an 
instrument of God, is both rational and reasonable ; 
but to declare that man is bound to acknowledge a 
sub-agent is absurd. The exceptions would be an 
overpowering cupidity derived from external influ- 
ences ; reflecting an abnormal physical state or the 
non-recognition of revelation in accord with intro- 
spection. To consider revelation as acquired by trans- 
mission, an unquestionable privilege of reflex action 
whether willful or unconscious, the point is, man 
knows. That is to say, ideal conception in the form 
of desire precedes the external possibility of trans- 
mission. 

It follows by reason of the natural privilege of 
ideal speculation, that revelation or whatever reflects 
a knowledge of God's presence, is not transmutable 
except by the mediating influence of love, when the 
correspondence of subject and object become a per- 
fect one in relation to the private character of direct 



HUMAN EQUITY 315 

revelation. Hence the immutability of God can only 
be known by the ideal faculty of co-existence. What 
confounds this simple principle is the scientific effort 
supported by political intrigue, the declared purpose 
of which is the protection of society. The real pur- 
pose, also founded upon the ideal authority of revela- 
tion directed by the will, is to encourage cupidity as 
the means of sustaining a class division of society. 
Timidity is cultivated to a state of fear when it is ap- 
pealed to by scientific vagaries that the populace are 
only waiting an opportunity of resentment. To rec- 
ognize that the relation of God to man is immutable 
and strictly individual, would necessitate the recogni- 
tion of any benighted person often more sinned 
against than sinning. 

The effort to compromise the difference between 
good and evil has always resulted in favor of cupid- 
ity, because the principle of sacrifice introduced by 
ancient religions reversed the moral obligation natu- 
rally revealed, making the sacrifice follow the gratifi- 
cation of the desire, instead of recognizing the moral 
virtue of sacrificing the desire itself. This principle 
relates to the immutable character of God which to 
be such it must include natural order. To confound 
order with law would mislead the natural effect of 
spontaneous revelation, for law is promulgated by art 
— finite — while order suggests the immutable infinite, 
establishing an ideal difference between nature and art. 

It follows in the order of observation, that revela- 
tion is natural ; and since it could also be claimed that 
it is natural to be artificial, it would not effect the op- 
posite characters of Nature and Art. Otherwise the 
two symbols could be embraced in one definition. 



316 HUMAN EQUITY 

Hence to observe that Nature partakes of the immu- 
table regularity of God, art is delegated to the finite 
conduct of man including all the scientific efforts to 
apologize for cupidity. In the absence of a complete 
recognition that Nature precedes art, one follows art 
in ungrateful contempt for its own source, from which 
the privilege is possible (freedom of choice between 
good and evil). 

The choice, therefore, between spontaneous revela- 
tion (natural) and its external transmission (art) pre- 
sents either freedom or subjugation according as one 
elects for himself. No person could be in accord with 
God abstractly for He must be recognized as a whole. 
Thus science and art being abstracts can never estab- 
lish an external authority over the direct relation be- 
tween each unit of personality, it being a private in- 
stitution that no development of art can possibly su- 
percede. To know, is positive regardless of the arti- 
ficial quibbling with indefinite words ; it makes no dif- 
ference to the principle of revelation whether a per- 
son insisted upon believing knowledge to be externally 
acquired or spontaneously revealed in the form of an 
ideal conception. It is only the credulous that can 
be trained artificially to believe he acquired his knowl- 
edge from external influence rather than from natu- 
ral cognition. It could be possible for two persons 
to have the same ideal conviction of the knowledge 
of God and yet contend to a state of anger over lit- 
eral transmission opposed to the natural. Simply the 
difference between Nature and art, while the principle 
of knowledge was not effected a particle. Hence the 
cupidity of man is more concerned in the profit of 
transmitting knowledge than the frank acknowledg- 



HUMAN EQUITY 317 

ment of the private and also immutable relation be- 
tween God and man. 

Doctrines and political systems are as dependent 
upon followers as a bonfire is upon fuel to consume. 
It is idle discussion to defend the principle of external 
transmission of either knowledge or revelation by lit- 
eral or artificial means exclusively. Such an argu- 
ment will not stand in the presence of pure reason or 
logic. There are a thousand reasons in opposition to 
a single tentative thraldom of imparting knowledge 
by external influence. Artificial education can be as 
dogmatic as political religion. Science is patronized 
as opposed to theology, simply to maintain an exter- 
nal authority over the populace. If the purpose was 
to benefit the people it would not be so strenuously 
held to, that both knowledge and revelation depended 
upon the external influence of artificial letters. A doc- 
trine or scientific system would not destroy their own 
eagerness for support by teaching a non-dependence 
upon them and also declare publicly that to teach a 
person to be natural was impossible ; while to teach 
a person to be unnatural was the exclusive object of 
artificial education. Hence as a principle distinct from 
any particular belief, artificial religion (paganism) is 
identical with artificial education (modernism). To 
quibble about what pertains to the natural, it could 
be observed if God is not natural and also unknown to 
art, there is no alternative between the natural and 
artificial. The individual knowledge of God would be 
the only means by which God could be known. A 
logical evidence if not conclusive is that God and 
knowledge both are revealed to the individual exclu- 
sive of any external influence of an artificial char- 
acter. 



318 HUMAN EQUITY 

Pure theology untainted with politics or science, to 
be consistent with its relation with God, it should be 
a clean principle, for science relates to things made of 
a finite character. The recognition of God is in no 
sense dependent upon science, political decree or arti- 
ficial transmission. To recognize God is to know, a 
freedom that is not dependent on permission or poli- 
tico-scientific license. The individual knowledge of 
God could not depend upon convincing another be- 
fore the knowledge could be confounded. For this rea- 
son politics, doctrines, and arbitrary institutions con- 
sidered as establishing codes of law, are always ex- 
ternal to the principle of the private communion with 
God. 

The man of principle is sublime when the word 
"principle" is not scientifically mounted on a swivel 
to accommodate cupidity, and external authority over 
internal reality. The mystery man of science claiming 
for his system that it represents the "highest develop- 
ment of knowledge" assumes to be the embodiment 
of ideal acquirements, for to admit that ideals were a 
common inheritance naturally revealed to the human 
race, his burden of cupidity excludes any respect for 
the natural and original. His predetermined end in 
view, is to elevate the artificial by a scientific pros- 
titution of Nature. Thus Nature is literally vulgar- 
ized to accommodate cupidity. Scientific theology 
has more regard for cupidity than the clear manifes- 
tation of God in whatever can be justly termed natu- 
ral. To establish a rigid etymology of words by 
state authority, viewed from a standpoint of compul- 
sory education, can have no other object than the 
maintaining of external authority, for the teaching of 



HUMAN EQUITY 319 

a child to think is absurd, however sincere a person 
may be in believing it. It is equivalent to a declara- 
tion of judgment against the possibility of natural 
man having a knowledge of God, because he was ig- 
norant of the decalogue. Also to maintain a justifi- 
cation of external authority over natural cognition a 
child is taught he is "vulgar" until he submits to ex- 
ternal influences and discards all his ideal dreams 
suggested by natural surroundings. Not to recog- 
nize that a child has ideal conceptions of God previ- 
ous to any knowledge of letters, is irreverent to God 
if not an irreparable injury to the child. Besides it 
would so verify the natural principle of ideal specu- 
lation that one could observe that evil conduct was 
due to external influences, only to be corrected by the 
sense of freedom, that even the language of the rose 
exhibits to the tender sensibilities of a child. Xo 
branch of science will ever become the "higher de- 
velopment of knowledge" by seeking to hide Nature 
from view with an artificial veil. 

Science is like a sponge that absorbs natural events 
immediately they occur, and in connection with such 
fictitious sciences as psychology, biology, philology, 
etymology, etc., are so arranged as to support each 
other in opposition to spontaneous revelation. Na- 
ture had to be literally degraded by the ideal faculty 
of the mind, a universal principle simply to give the 
appearance that God bestowed the privilege of art 
upon man a common inheritance, for the sole purpose 
of presiding over Nature. The fact that science is as 
ignorant of knowledge as dead matter, shows its pre- 
tension of developing something of which it has no 
knowledge. The mystery man is getting out of date. 



320 HUMAN EQUITY 

for the individual knowledge of God delegates science 
to the physical and artificial where it belongs. Also 
the finite character of all the sciences excludes them 
from the infinite. 

Plato demonstrated the Divine ability of man to 
construct ideal thoughts from the inner conception. 
His writings would not indicate that he craved the 
honor of being "the father of idealism," for he plainly 
shows that ideals are the very essence of knowledge, 
beauty, virtue, etc., being spontaneous conceptions, no 
less than God, by reason of their being unteachable 
and much less transferable. That he failed to recon- 
cile politics with religion was to his credit. To con- 
tend against his surroundings immediately after the 
murder of Socrates, without the exercise of diplomacy, 
would have been suicide. His writings were not 
comprehended by men entirely devoted to politics. It 
was a thousand years after he was dead that his 
writings were discovered to be immortal. Immortal 
by reason of his efforts, distinctly visible to portray- 
ing ideal thought as a spontaneous revelation in per- 
fect accord with Socrates. The point is, that ideals 
are not products, for no art or conduct of man can 
effect a spontaneous revelation which to be such is 
God, or man is an accident and God a product of 
science. 

Aristotle was a great accommodation to the politi- 
cal world by consigning ideals to mystery which the 
study of physics was the only method by which 
knowledge was possible. It was a stroke of diplom- 
acy extremely flattering to the supreme authority of 
the State over religion and morals. Whatever he 
may have thought of spontaneous conceptions, he held 



HUMAN EQUITY 32 I 

them to be an effect of the physical to the same ex- 
tent that the physical State was the supreme law of 
human conduct. His experience of the necessity of a 
government, was confined to the condition of Greek 
states, for that reason no ideal dream of popular sov- 
ereignity could have occupied his mind. He ren- 
dered a great assistance to physical science as a poli- 
tical measure of external authority over the Spiritual ; 
the effects of which are visible at the present time in 
secular learning. If Aristotle ever said that the unit 
of humanity was the essence of knowledge, also that 
pure energy was God, it was less flattering to his po- 
litical patronage than the average politician of his 
day could comprehend. 

Pure energy presents the exact difference between 
what is physical and visible, and that which can only 
be known by spontaneous conceptions (revelation). 
It also confines the science of mind and soul to em- 
pirical consciousness. Hence if ideal imagination can 
study an external soul, it must be relative to personal 
experience of the physical observation of which ideal 
speculation is the most prominent factor. Consider- 
ing energy equally as invisible as God (spontaneous 
revelation excepted) it would be just as absurd to 
acknowledge the existence of two Gods as to declare 
there were two energies, mental and physical, as com- 
monly accepted. It is a great accommodation in sup- 
port of external authority to sustain a plurality of 
energies. Ideal speculation from an empirical stand- 
point can in connection with spontaneous revelation 
not only claim but know there is only one energy 
identical with God and knowledge. 

The psychologist must accept one of two positions, 



322 HUMAN EQUITY 

whether spontaneous revelation commands the con- 
duct of individual man, or its reflex, in the form of 
transmission from one man to another. Practically a 
decision between Spiritual and civil authority. To 
deny the omnipotence of God, and also maintain a 
reflex revelation, is on the face of such a condition a 
perfect contradiction. If both forms are necessary to 
make a complete whole, one must be over the other 
or in reality only one exists. 

If God is everything except the conduct of man, it 
would be of little consequence what symbol shall be 
used to express Him allowing it is recognized as re- 
lating to perfection. If energy is dependent upon 
heat, it is only borrowed to be returned again by the 
activity of energy. To know God as a result of this 
energy, it can be no less than God. Hence physical 
strength directed by the will relates to the conduct of 
man distinct from God in the sense that God is the 
power or energy by which the physical motion of man 
is possible. If there is a physical energy and also a 
mental energy, as science has tried to prove since 
Aristotle, in order to complete such a psychological 
paradox, it would be necessary to believe in a dual 
character of God, one subjective and the other objec- 
tive, which makes physical energy, or live matter 
false, allowing it to be a political accommodation. 



HUMAN EQUITY 323 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

THE FREEDOM OF THE PRESS. 

NATURAL freedom must be either perfect, or its 
imperfectness would destroy the intrinsic neces- 
sity by which it was entitled to be called freedom.. 
The principle of intrinsic freedom does not always 
include sufficient courage to admit it. The most im- 
portant feature of natural freedom is to know God, 
since the entire literature of the world has not proved 
He is unknown. What does science mean by trying 
to defend its position that God is unknown? Does it 
require literal culture to discover that God is un- 
known, when an illiterate person knows enough to 
declare the affirmative? Would an object display 
such ignorance as to declare to a subject that he was 
mistaken in his knowledge of God? 

In view of the freedom of the press it would be 
simple honesty to recognize the individual freedom to 
know God without external information. Individual 
freedom preceded the freedom of the press. If a per- 
son knows God, his sincerity can readily be tested, by 
observing his indifference to external objection, for 
whatever a person knows it would be a severe incon- 
gruity for the same person to also display a doubt 
about it. That is to say, to know is positive no less 
than spontaneous revelation ; in opposition to artifi- 
cial negation, it is as light to darkness. The limit of 



324 HUMAN EQUITY 

literature is to present an artificial record of man's 
conduct in relation to material things. Publications 
of every character are objects of adversity toward 
each other, but no sooner do they obtain prosperity 
than they appear to forget the source of their great- 
ness. To obtain patronage in their primary state they 
will emulate a new religion or any political reform 
that promises to elevate the human race to an artifi- 
cial paradise. Prosperity is the fundamental princi- 
ple of tyranny, and a publication will obtain a large 
audience by attracting the attention of the populace 
with pictures of distress and misery. The evidence 
that cupidity controls the motive is when the publi- 
cation becomes subsidized for the purpose of betray- 
ing its patrons ; reversing the precept of personal lib- 
erty to the practice of external authority, supple- 
mented by a deification of rulers, or an exalted equiv- 
alent. 

It is this perfidy of publications parallel to so- 
called institutional freedom that preys like vultures 
upon ignorance and credulity. Freedom, therefore, 
maintained by the support of numbers is a law to 
itself and when voiced by a publication, it becomes 
common for a newspaper to declare, "we mould pub- 
lic opinion." If honesty is a moral virtue, it would 
be difficult to explain how an aggregation of individ- 
uals constitute a freedom of which individual conduct 
of a like character could be held in contempt. The 
freedom of the press (an unquestioned privilege) is a 
self-appointed judiciary in proportion to its numerical 
support. It is as defiant and aggressive as a militant 
government toward any practice of individual free- 
dom. It was common fifty years after the United 



HUMAN EQUITY 325 

States was recognized as an independent nation to 
thank God for personal freedom. It is remarkable at 
present for publications to declare that "freedom is 
not license" ; and the prayers of thankfulness for "in- 
stitutional liberty" is the present style of rendering 
thanks to God. Can numbers give such a moral tone 
to vice to the extent of bewildering the grace of God, 
in contrast to an individual partition? If freedom 
only applies to the physical force of numbers to de- 
termine an individual license, or to what extent the 
individual was permitted to exercise the blessing of 
freedom, the only use of the word license would be a 
meaningless figure of speech. 

The danger to society could be apprehended more 
intelligently if the same effort was made to reform 
society, as what is put forth to deprive the individual 
of his Spiritual freedom, by imposing upon his cre- 
dulity until supple obedience to external authority 
would be an unqualified success. The vilifying char- 
acter of publications that derived their freedom from 
the initiative of individual freedom, is self-evident 
proof of the ungrateful attitude toward the Spiritual 
character of human equity — the fundamental principle 
of American independence. 

The common people are becoming too intelligent 
to be subjugated by the mere duplicating of ancient 
methods. To some extent European diplomacy will 
be effective by encouraging factional differences to 
overcome the united action of the majority, but some 
issue will unexpectedly spring up similar to the col- 
ored slaves running away from a political perfidy of 
trying to maintain a nation founded upon the declara- 
tion of human equity while in practice slavery was 



326 



HUMAN EQUITY 



justified by all the publications devoted to so-called 
social protection. Yet society survived the shock, 
wiser, if not much improved. The influence of the 
press will grow weaker in proportion to its growth in 
agnostics, and the fallacy of scientific supremacy. 
Professors are flooding the United States from the 
military camps of Europe seeking a more profitable 
field for their acquired talents. 

It is often remarked in defence of external author- 
ity, that one hundred men know more than one man. 
This only covers the principle of quantity confined to 
mathematics. It has no connection whatever with 
the personal communion with God. An aggregation 
of people great or small in correspondence with God 
does not effect the individual knowledge of God by 
reason of being a unit of association. The principle 
of reflexion could be observed to account for congre- 
gation of parts united by a common thought in an 
harmonious whole. Also a group of people would be 
no less in correspondence by reason of external in- 
fluence. Knowledge would be no less an infinite en- 
tity by reason of the human faculty of transmitting 
knowledge by relative signs and symbols. A strict 
believer in external authority would be encouraged 
by an aggregation of persons of a like belief. It is 
proved by the declaration of an agnostic while he ex- 
emplifies an actual communion with God identical 
with knowledge as an intrinsic entity. What the ag- 
nostic really disputes is an objective God directing 
the conduct of individual man. 

Publications patronize followers in like manner to 
any organization seeking the aggregation of numbers. 
It follows that a solitary individual refusing to be co- 



HUMAN EQUITY 327 

erced by the external influence of ridicule, would be 
called stubborn or obstinate. It equally applies to 
an individual opinion yet it represents the very es- 
sence of freedom of the press often proclaims itself 
to be independent; yet it guards with the greatest 
care the external supervision over individual freedom. 
This principle should not be confounded with politics 
and a duty of obedience to civil authority. It relates 
to the freedom of conscience. 

Publications, institutions, the science of etymology, 
and conventionality are all opposed to individualism ; 
yet strange to say, good is just as dependent upon in- 
dividuality as evil. The point would be, to what ex- 
tent is goodness enhanced in contention against evil? 
Society is just as natural as birth, which immediately 
involves two individuals. The relation of man to 
man, and the relation of one man to the many, pre- 
sents a universal feature that is not subjective to arti- 
ficial objectiveness. To consider freedom as a prin- 
ciple of equity it is no less individual than collective. 
The aggregation of numbers, however, can show no 
just reason why they are entitled to determine the 
principle of freedom to the extent of exercising it, in 
dictating its limitation applied to the individual. His- 
tory and the present social practice presents a strong 
evidence. Except for the virtue of human conduct re- 
vealed direct to the individual, collective adversity to 
the freedom of the individual would make human so- 
ciety, of any character, impossible. It is not the mere 
opinion of one person, but from reasonable deduc- 
tions by which no other conclusions could be reached. 

Government reflects the universal desire for the 
protection of personal freedom, but the necessary offi- 



328 



HUMAN EQUITY 






cials to administer the affairs of state assume to be 
the government. A subsidized press, maintained by 
commercial monopoly and encouraged by the cupid- 
ity of government officials is what a Republic has to 
contend with. The world would be a passive absurd- 
ity if there were no obstacles to be overcome ; but 
when external influence, including a free press, apolo- 
gizes for evil by reason of its necessity, it should ob- 
serve that the progress of the individual was just as 
dependent upon the conception of evil (experience) 
as the freedom of the press, or collective groups which 
the average publication is continually apologizing for. 
That is, the evil conduct of a single individual dis- 
turbs the entire press of a nation, which calls atten- 
tion to a greater vigilance for fear society and insti- 
tutional freedom will be menaced by the single indi- 
vidual, if collective strength sacrificed enough of its 
cultivated cupidity to consider the relation of man to 
God, over which collective strength has no jurisdic- 
tion. It follows that society will be rewarded or pun- 
ished in proportion to its good or evil conduct, in like 
manner as the individual. The difference, therefore, 
between the physical strength of numbers, and the 
apparent helplessness of the individual, is the direct 
communion with God, so exclusively individual since 
one has only to recognize the fact, that artificial for- 
mula supported by the strength of numbers is pow- 
erless to conquer a single individual. The individ- 
ual has nothing to complain of prior to experience, 
for that reason a person of greater experience is acting 
the part of an imposter when he adds to his own 
natural advantages by an abstraction from the credu- 
lity of natural virtue. 



HUMAN EQUITY 329 

The published apologies for imposing upon the 
credulous for the avowed purpose of improving the 
crudity of the illiterate, is too vague for an illiterate 
person to offer the least defence. Once the illiterate 
person's confidence is betrayed he becomes less credu- 
lous and more subjective to cupidity, when intricate 
forms of illustration can only be met by an equity of 
understanding in artificial duplicity. Scholastic at- 
tainments do not exempt a person from ignorance 
equally as gross as natural illiteracy, since publica- 
tions are ample evidence. It is an equity of ignor- 
ance that gives the scientist and theologian an oppor- 
tunity to exploit, each his own apology for the ex- 
ample of the scholastic learned. It presents a stage 
which cannot be excluded from common observation. 
Artificial instruction is scarcely a circumstance to the 
effect of example upon the silent observer. Even the 
newspaper claiming to mould popular opinions is an 
example of ignorance from which the most abject 
human being is morally exempt. That is, a person 
who uses his ability or position to vilify another, 
does not present an example for compulsory emula- 
tion which can be readily shunned by a person of 
much less artificial ability. 

The moral distinction between the natural and ar- 
tificial is parallel to the inviolate identity of God and 
man, with the form of communication between man 
and man. That is, whatever can be conceived as in- 
violate, call it Nature, God, Knowledge or revelation, 
is infinite, in distinction from the artificial, which by 
the example of the freedom of the press to villify per- 
sonal freedom exhibits its violable character opposed 
to the infinite. Not to recognize the distinction be- 



330 



HUMAN EQUITY 



tween reality and formality is an implied effort to ele- 
vate art in authority over natural revelation. No 
greater irreverence to God could be delineated. If the 
relation of man to God is not inviolate, it always pre- 
sents a better record of conduct, than the artificial 
effect, continually apologizing- for cupidity as a neces- 
sary protection against the danger of individual cre- 
dulity. 

A publication is an artificial product just as depend- 
ent upon revelation as the individual is upon the ac- 
tion of his heart. The effort to supervise the conduct 
of man by an artificial remoulding of direct revelation, 
is the most perfect exhibition of egoism that revealed 
conception can possibly perceive. The impersonal 
use of the pronoun "we" implies what "we think." 
Leaving the privilege of custom as a flimsy shield to 
hide behind, the phraseology, "we think," implies that 
none other but "we" are sufficiently capacitated to 
think until becoming externally informed of what to 
think. Hence the effort to display artificial formula 
as above the natural, is an external effort to display 
enough altruism to hide the egoism which prompts 
the effort. It is not amiss to observe the absolute 
necessity of some degree of experience before ideal 
expansion can be extended. After thoroughly sub- 
scribing to reflex thought the admiration of form in 
distinction to reality can be cultivated to a prodigious 
extent, when the affectation of naturalness and sim- 
ple manners can be so wonderfully exhibited that a 
subject becomes artificially inflated reflecting the 
shadow of reality mistaken for the real. 

Publications seek to hide their devotion to cupidity 
by a pretence of benefiting the populace in the strug- 



HUMAN EQUITY 33 I 

gle for obtaining the most for the least exertion. The 
recognition of direct revelation is first in order, and 
the absence of such recognition by publications dis- 
tinctly betray their purpose, which is to profit by the 
ideal portraiture of expectations so extravagantly il- 
lustrated as to make the reality absurd. An uninten- 
tional service is thus being rendered by the very ex- 
travagance portrayed. It proves cupidity to be the 
prime motive., for it is unreasonable to maintain a fic- 
titious expectation which would, if real, destroy the 
support that sustains the fictition. Direct revelation 
becomes more attractive in proportion as external 
influences became more authoritative in its demand for 
obedience. Revelation is the only real protection the 
individual has against the ambiguity of words com- 
piled into literature for the purpose of supporting 
objective or external authority. The very character 
of revelation always preceding any literal form of con- 
veyance, excludes any external authority from ever 
obtaining complete control over the individual person. 

To what extent the individual recognizes his clear 
title to commune with God irrespective of external 
dictation, is beyond the freedom of the press, or in 
other words, personal freedom predominates over in- 
stitutional freedom as much so as a subject or object, 
allowing both to be sentient, predominates over their 
shadow. The Truth is not dependent upon its effect 
for support. The failure to recognize this simple prin- 
ciple is not detrimental to the Truth, but uncomfort- 
ably so to the person who defies it. 

The press would not be free if it did not have the 
right of choice between good and evil, but to declare 
a publication to be good by virtue of its supporting 



33* 



HUMAN EQUITY 



numbers it has to contend against individual freedom 
representing the same choice. In either case the ex- 
tension of freedom to a privilege of inflicting an in- 
jury upon others is foreign to the spontaneous char- 
acter of revelation, which includes a punishment 
equally as private as the revelation. Freedom also in- 
cludes a privilege of contract, an accommodation for 
those who lack the courage to defy the vilifications 
fcr which publications are paid to perform. In every 
case credulity is the support of cupidity against 
which, to contend successfully, moral courage is the 
only dependence; if not included in direct revelation 
it cannot be obtained from external influences. 



HUMAN EQUITY 333 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 



MORAL COURAGE. 



TO maintain a principle of consciousness against the 
opposition of countless numbers is the only test 
by which moral courage could be exemplified. As an 
ideal principle it can only be treated objectively re- 
flective of the possibility of a perfect man. It is a 
conspicuous circumstance that a person admits his 
own lack of courage by constantly reiterating an un- 
qualified dependence of man as a subject upon man 
as an object. To establish this principle man has de- 
veloped a remarkable sagacity, yet in the absence of 
moral courage he not only destroys the effect, when 
attempting to prescribe a method of conduct, but de- 
stroys himself by the influence of his own perfidy. 

Courage as an indifference to danger is quite dis- 
tinct from morality. It can be stimulated by exter- 
nal influences ; therefore to comprehend moral cour- 
age it must be recognized in the light of private judg- 
ment distinct from external influences. The senti- 
ment prevails to a great extent that a state of de- 
pendence must be thoroughly inculcated into the mind 
of youth to establish a strict obedience to external 
authority. It has an immoral effect by reason of sub- 
stituting artificial rule in opposition to spontaneous 
revelation. To dispute one external principle for the 
purpose of supplying another would not exclude the 



334 



HUMAN EQUITY 



general principle of unqualified dependence. Because 
every living thing is dependent, from a Spiritual point 
of view, it is next to impossible to distinguish the 
difference between direct or indirect revelation. 

It is no less moral whether the principle is recog- 
nized as a conception or perception; but when moral 
courage is brought to a severe test it involves the al- 
ternative of choice between the independent action of 
the mind, or a complete surrender to external auth- 
ority. Moralists are fully agreed upon the universal 
dependence upon God, while they disagree radically 
in the relation of man to God independent of external 
relations. Cupidity in some form lies at the base of 
this difficulty of understanding. Hence the observer, 
in silence notices this discrepancy in man's preten- 
sions to transmit moral obligations while they cannot 
agree upon what morality really means. One would 
insist that morality was a form of conduct, while an- 
other would be equally as positive that morality was 
a strict devotion to antecedent revelation. No moral- 
ist seeking an audience would admit that God, includ- 
ing morality, was a distinct revelation direct to every 
sentient being. The fact that it requires moral cour- 
age to recognize God, does not detract from His infi- 
nite relation to every living thing, emphatically illu- 
minated by Christ's example of what moral courage 
really signified. 

If revelation means anything at all, it signifies 
something revealed ; therefore, if revelation itself is 
not God, the literal formula of trying to maintain a di- 
recting influence, by which means the external trans- 
mission is effected, it follows that revelation gives no 
evidence of being improved by artificial transmission. 



HUMAN EQUITY 335 

It is significant also that natural language is directly 
revealed. Hence to disguise this fact by literal form- 
ula, it presents no moral principle to emulate, for it 
bears the features of dishonesty on the face of it. It 
is not dishonest to adapt forms to vocal sounds for 
the purpose of communication, or to record events, 
but when the relation of a particular form to vocal 
sounds is recognized to be limitless in variation, it is 
dishonest to establish a form of intricate difficulty to 
comprehend, for no other purpose than to maintain a 
division of humanity. That is, if the vocal sounds of 
(A) can be symbolized in endless variety of form, it 
distinctly reflects a purpose of subjugation when 
based upon any particular artificial form. If this is 
not paganism the advent of Christ must be relegated 
to form, inasmuch as the form of words are deified to 
give the external form of authority over the direct 
revelation of natural language which is absolute} dis- 
tinct from any external formula of a letter. 

To recognize God it does not depend upon politi- 
cal permission, since the motive is to exploit exter- 
nal authority in self-defence against the direct influ- 
ence of God implanted in the individual person, con- 
sisting of voice and feeling: properties which no ex- 
ternal authority can impart or prevent. The very 
limit of external or objective authority is to obstruct 
the direct communion with God by means of an ap- 
peal to cupidity or the taking advantage of the natu- 
ral desire to preserve existence. That this opposition 
to an innate knowledge of God is to preserve external 
authority is obvious by the strenuous effort to main- 
tain the position. A recognition of revelation con- 
stantly being experienced will in connection with such 



336 



HUMAN EQUITY 



recognition, expose the perfidy of external influence. 
If any one has doubts about external duplicity, a per- 
sonal declaration of a knowledge of God independent 
of external dictation, would immediately dispel such 
doubts. 

To know is quite simple in comparison to moral 
courage enough to defend the knowledge in face of 
opposition. When the English language is so tangled 
up that the various sciences are compelled to manu- 
facture their own specific terms, it adds proof to the 
artificial effort to maintain a definite authority over 
the Spiritual, including the natural. The strict for- 
malist who has conquered the English language to a 
state of perfection, neglects the fact that the language 
of God is the only language that can be strictly de- 
pended upon. Hence in the presence of moral cour- 
age, a strict form of artificial language could not be 
authoritive over any other form. Any conceivable 
form that art could suggest, agreed upon by two per- 
sons could represent a common understanding of the 
same sound when it could be extended to a limitless 
extent. Its distinct relation to God, revelation and 
consciousness, is the intrinsic feature more important 
to recognize than the form engrossed upon the mem- 
ory. The mere memorizing of forms may be a re- 
markable exhibition of capacity, but there is more re- 
ality in a revealed idea, than all the artificial forms 
that could be utilized to represent the idea. 

Forms, manners, and customs should be considered 
as relating to man's conduct in a state of society — the 
relation between man and man. The effort to fuse 
Spirit and matter leads first to a war of words followed 
by a war to the death. It is due to the organized 



HUMAN EQUITY ;:; 

polity of maintaining at any cost external supervision 
over individual revelation, in no way connected with 
external influence. Yet political authority has main- 
tained an effective opposition to spiritual revelation — : 
the authority of God — since Socrates exemplified a 
moral courage in defence of the "inner man." 

Literature is poisoned with the effort to maintain 
society by political sagacity in opposition to God re- 
vealed to the inner man. Human conduct is as dis- 
tinct from any directing influence from God, as the 
external is from the moral conception of action, so 
strictly individual that dogmatic science and political 
astuteness combined cannot control a single idea in 
touch with God. Science robs Xature : : : 
and politics thrive on credulity and the encoi 
ment of secular education, which is a tentative effort 
to cultivate ignorance. Xo one can be more ignorant 
than he who is thoroughly imbued with external in- 
fluence not to know that every move he makes de- 
pends upon the direct revelation of energy that makes 
the movement possible. 

person could be at fault for a sincere belief in 
opposition to a contrary belief equally as sincere, and 
as strongly held to by another. A reasonable ob- 
server, however, could generally determine the char- 
acter upon which either of the beliefs were founded. 
It would imply external authority in either case, for 
no belief could be a conception in the broad sense of 
knowing. A belief, therefore, would usually relate to 
a conviction involving external influence. It is a per- 
tinent feature of external influence, to observe that it 
relates more to the conduct of man than to his moral 
character. However dogmatic a controversy might be 



338 



HUMAN EQUITY 



in regard to the virtue of external influence, it is an 
obvious fact, if the perfection of God is recognized, 
that conduct of man is not directed by any superior 
influence than spontaneous revelation. Whatever 
conflict of opinion might exist in reference to external 
influence and a direct conception, the conclusion 
would either deny any moral influence in the character 
of God, for the recognition of God would exclude His 
responsibility for the conduct of man, which is nota- 
bly conspicuous, in defence of the external concep- 
tion or spontaneous revelation. 

To accommodate man's persistency in supporting 
the pagan dogma of a classification of humanity Spirit- 
ually as well as materially, the external influence must 
be maintained by political assistance or any artificial 
means conceivable. If this does not imply an artificial 
god in opposition to a natural God, it implies its equiv- 
alent, which would be that the higher development of 
intelligence, being limitless, would forever be the mas- 
ter of the crude, or natural intelligence which logically 
considered would consign the natural man to some 
form of slavery. 

The individual fugitive from slavery illustrated the 
virtue of moral courage in the crude, regardless of 
the various opinions on the subject. It does not effect 
the general principle of infinite authority over the 
finite effort of man, who, if he can become so inflated 
with intellectual acquirements as to sincerely believe 
that God had no more mercy on the human race than 
to reveal Himself so specificially that it depended 
upon artificial means of transmission to accommodate 
the cupidity of man, which depends upon external 
authority for its fundamental support. 



HUMAN EQUITY 339 

If God is in communion with each individual man 
he knows it without the artificial necessity of being 
externally informed. Reality can be no less than 
invisible energy, the equivalent of Spirit, and what- 
ever science classes as unknowable. It would be an 
admission of weakness for a scientific man (science 
being considered objective), to claim science to be an 
abstract of reality, and also declare reality to be un- 
known. Of what value could an abstract be in de- 
termining the reality of "something" for the purpose 
of proving it to be unknown? The vagaries of the 
crudest type of man, trying to convey by relative 
signs his revealed conceptions, would, by the very 
effort he displayed, express more reality than the sci- 
entific man seeking to prove by physical analysis that 
what is literally known to be unknowable. This prin- 
ciple can only be reached paradoxically, for the reason 
that the literalist excludes any recognition of the illit- 
erate from the field of knowledge. This appears to 
forever close the gates against natural knowledge by 
scientific decree ; that "science is the highest develop- 
ment of knowledge." It ignores revelation or any 
direct Spiritual influence. Hence whatever is nega- 
tive to external authority is literally termed "un- 
known." Science and agnosticism, therefore, would 
sweep the world clean of all vagaries by establishing 
the "highest development of knowledge" until it be- 
came more tyrannical than any system of government 
recorded in history. 

The individual, however, will protest against any 
form of external authority in proportion to his moral 
courage, of which history also bears witness, and 
since civil government of compelling a person to 



34Q 



HUMAN EQUITY 



think just what external or objective authority dic- 
tates, it effects an equity of opportunity at least be- 
tween the natural man and the artificial man. The 
same privilege, therefore, that permits the man of 
science to boast of being the "highest development of 
knowledge," also permits the most abject being in 
human form to deny it, as secretly as esoteric lan- 
guage, or as publicly as his courage will permit. 

Laying aside political and material influences, and 
recognizing man as universally dependent upon the 
simple principle of energy, generated from heat, which 
is only another word for energy, it established a com- 
mon base to consider the principle of knowledge. The 
most vague speculation in regard to a theory of 
knowledge is subordinate to energy. When the pur- 
pose is to prove that reality exists in opposition to 
what is relatively known, why should the base of 
reality be so ingeniously covered by a hypothetical 
supposition? There can be only one reason, which is, 
to take advantage of credulity. If any other reason 
was entertained, it could be asked : why the simple 
Truth demanded such a strenuous effort to support 
an artificial truth, itself as dependent upon a natural 
foundation as life is upon the oxygen in the air? The 
artificial fight of society encouraged by political influ- 
ence is strictly relative to the conduct of man, having 
no other connection with intrinsic energy except its 
use to execute the command of the will. Human con- 
duct is reciprocal between society and individual, both 
conditions have the same equity in the possession of 
energy (Spiritual energy). If science has discovered 
any theoretic energy but what is subordinate to Spirit- 
ual energy it yet remains to be proved. 



HUMAN EQUITY 34 1 

When personal presence is not a better proof of 
reality than scientific abstracts, art will have de- 
stroyed every vestige of footprints on the face of the 
earth by reason only of a complete annihilation of 
Spiritual energy being naturally and continually re- 
vealed to the sentient image of God. 

It was claimed and disputed that Aristotle declared 
"pure energy was God." It is not the present purpose 
to attempt to analyze the potential character of energy 
by means of bodies acted upon, or matter in motion. 
If science is objective to the subjective character of 
dead ashes, science is subordinate to the energy that 
produced the ashes. Therefore, whatever God, knowl- 
edge and revelation may be in addition to the energy 
(heat), its equilibrium presents a perfection no less 
than God, and no one would exert himself to use his 
revealed energy to prove that God was more than 
perfect. Even if pure energy is not a caloric element 
of perfection, there is not a particle of substance in 
motion that is not subordinate to this principle. Hence 
to recognize the Infinite, as a whole also whatever is 
infinite in separate parts. In the absence of revelation 
no person could know enough to submit subjectively 
to objective science. Thus when science can exhibit 
such misconduct in seeking the subordination of the 
credulous by asserting that conception is a subordi- 
nate condition, it is not strange that the credulous 
also would exhibit an error of conduct. 

When science admits that conception is a subordi- 
nate principle, and also that its object to which every 
subordinate principle, to be such, must relate to, is 
"unknown," it is an unsubstantiated assertion when 
the Truth is more prominent than the motive in thus 



342 



HUMAN EQUITY 



trying to hide the Truth by elevating science to an 
objective equality with God. 

The effort to hide the Truth is often conspicuous 
in disclosing it ; for when a person holds to a belief in 
subordinate conception, he should be able to inform 
the public to what conception was subordinate. Moral 
courage is subordinate to natural energy exclusive of 
any artificial effort which is no less subordinate to 
the same principle. To know, in connection with 
Spiritual energy is a recognition of revelation, when, 
if revelation is not God, both terms are meaningless, 
to be embraced, in energy or spirit also relative terms ; 
but to know is a private communion with Spirit 
(energy) since the relative word has never been 
invented to convey revelation from one person to 
another, because revelation itself is God. 



HUMAN EQUITY 343 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

ANCIENT REFERENCES. 

ONE feature of history appears more remarkable 
than its voluminous details which also betrays a 
continuous purpose to the same end, to maintain arti- 
ficial supremacy objectively over the natural, subjec- 
tively. The argument could be endless in support of 
either the affirmative or negative of this dual charac- 
ter between man and man. There must be some solu- 
tion or central point to this complexity, or else human 
conduct is a mere accident, which would consign the 
entire race to a fatal irregularity in which the 
insentient product of Xature in comparison presents 
a model of irregularity. 

The effort to fuse the natural with the artificial is 
the remarkable feature of history, no less remarkable, 
however, than the fact that every apparent fusion of 
art and Xature will not co-exist together except for a 
limited period, practically controlled by the force of 
art. The artificial, literal, and political presents a 
combination persistently opposed to the natural and 
Spiritual, or any consideration of pure energy distinct 
from visible substance. The policy is more apparent 
than moral honesty, for the reason that every object 
of perception is strictly subjective to this principle, 
since man first experimented with art. 

History gives ample evidence that the ancients, in- 



344 HUMAN EQUITY 

eluding the lowest type of humanity, were in posses- 
sion of some degree of art (to make tools of instru- 
ments to extend the use of hands). The single point 
in touch with moral honesty and human equity is to 
recognize that the knowledge of art was revealed ; 
which forever consigns every vestige of external au- 
thority to a subordinate position. No God can be 
artificially established above the One supreme energy 
which reveals conception, or the ability to perceive. 
The scientific effort to elevate one man above another 
in contempt of a Supreme Ruler, has always failed in 
the past, with a reasonable probability that it will 
continue. 

The effort to teach subjective conception is for the 
purpose of justifying external authority, which relates 
to material things. The principle of revelation cannot 
be trenched upon by either science or art, both prin- 
ciples being subjective to objective revelation. Sub- 
jective in the sense that all systems of a theoretic or 
doctrinal character depend upon individual support, 
but revelation has always opposed objective oppres- 
sion. Hence the individual patron of these objective 
efforts withdraws support in exact proportion as his 
confidence is betrayed. Man refuses to continually 
support external authority that betrays a thousand 
people against one that escapes. It may be a slow 
method of obtaining wisdom from such a sacrifice, but 
it has always been a sure way. It has certainly pre- 
vented superficial authority from destroying the 
human race. 

Without entering into the details of Abraham's bi- 
ography, since it was no doubt "fixed" long after he 
was dead, to support the artificial pretensions of ob- 



HUMAN EQUITY 345 

jective authority over spontaneous revelation. History- 
supervised by political tyranny gives ample evidence 
that events must be compared with individual inter- 
pretations before anything relative to the Truth could 
be determined. It is an unbroken chain since letters 
were first used to record events, that no chief of any 
tribe or ruling body of a nation has ever recognized 
distinctly a universal revelation of God direct to the 
individual. In whatever varied form a revelation has 
been recognized, it has only been conceded in history 
to have related to a political ruler. That is, a policy 
of some character is distinctly apparent in opposition 
to an individual communion with God exclusive of 
political permission in some form. Hence an organ- 
ized society will defend the principles of culture as a 
means of external authority while it will declare its 
own authority for maintaining the position to be un- 
known. The point should be observed that a disbe- 
liever in a knowledge of God would support external 
authority with the same vigor that an organization 
would in supporting a specific revelation. It would 
thus appear that the individual has no right in equity 
to commune with God without political permission. 

Abraham demonstrated a personal conviction of an 
individual communion with God. His sincerity can- 
not be questioned when it is observed that he pursued 
a nomadic course in defiance of his idolatrous sur- 
roundings. His example is still more conspicuous by 
reason of his making no attempt to establish a new 
religion. It was an evidence of a direct revelation 
having no specific character beyond his own personal 
courage to recognize it in the presence of his imme- 
diate family. The historian could not expunge the 



346 HUMAN EQUITY 

most essential feature by which Abraham took a radi- 
cal departure from the conventionalities of the period. 
The details of his life could be distorted at the pleas- 
ure of the historian ; but his own assertion must have 
been necessary to establish the possibility of an indi- 
vidual revelation in the presence of God. 

It is this possibility of a knowledge of God that 
applies to every human being on earth. It is an evi- 
dence that no impeachment can disturb. Political 
dogmatism could appropriate this circumstance to ac- 
commodate its own end, but a man would have to 
betray his own doubt of Abraham's sincerity by as- 
serting that his knowledge of God depended upon ex- 
ternal transmission to the children of Israel, whose 
religious history is conspicuous in developing mono- 
theism on strict lines of recognizing One God with 
only one method of communication. Any external 
method is subjective to the One principle as distinct 
between Nature and Art as conception is from percep- 
tion, or the necessary energy to perceive. Abraham 
demonstrated this ability from which his descendants 
drifted to utter failure by trying to set up an external 
authority over conscious knowledge, the exclusive 
method by which God reveals Himself to man. 

It is the one principle of absolute existence (pure 
energy) to which no predicate can be assigned. The 
artificial and political both are subjective to the one 
principle by which individual man is privileged to 
commune directly with God. 

No apologist can find any external reason for the 
failure of the Israelites to redeem God's promise to 
Abraham other than their own refusal to accept it. 
God could not force a blessing upon a man in opposi- 



HUMAN EQUITY 347 

tion to his accepting it, since the will could demand 
such terms as would make the fulfillment of the prom- 
ise impossible. The effort to make a god to accom- 
modate external authority in elevating one man over 
another, was the effort of the Israelites to emulate 
the Egyptians from whom they fled to escape being 
oppressed by the same principle. Whether it was 
caused by ignorance or the egoism of priestcraft, it 
was no less destructive to the Israelites than to the 
Egyptians. To attribute a strict benevolence to God 
and also maintain by force of the will a political eleva- 
tion of one man over another, would be equivalent to 
accepting the means of elevation of one from the very 
person over which the elevation was to be imposed. 

The indifference to investigating the Spiritual, sep- 
arate from the political, or revealed duty, distinct from 
civil obligation, makes human equity depend upon the 
recognition of the grace of God, rather than to com- 
mand the ungracious pretension of man in assuming to 
be the instrument of grace that he defiled by political 
association in defence of external revelation ; opposed 
to the spontaneous revelation of God, that has never 
been predicated beyond the conscious knowledge of 
the revelation itself. Even the objective effort to 
transmit revelation depends upon subjective revela- 
tion, which has always been spontaneous and personal, 
since Abraham exemplified the fact of Spiritual com- 
munion. His descendants, however, exemplified what 
the conduct of man could be when directed by 
external or political authority. Time will cease 
to be, before external authority can improve 
society by exempting itself from its own rules ; 
or what would be the same thing, for legislative 



348 HUMAN EQUITY 

bodies to break their own laws in contempt of any ob- 
jective authority. Even God, (allowing that he could) 
gives no evidence of breaking His own laws. 

From a general observation of the relation of Moses 
r.nd the Judges the line is distinctly drawn between 
Spiritual authority and the political. The priesthood 
were practically the voice of the people and as their 
cupidity could be promoted by political methods their 
faith in God was subjected to political supervision. It 
is not a point of contention whether Samuel could 
prove his personal communion with God, or not, for 
it relates more at the present time to what the opinion 
of an observer could be in regard to what a direct com- 
munion with God really means. 

For a man to insist that God is a mystery because 
He does not manifest Himself in accord with ideal con- 
ceptions of politics, is absurd, simple because con- 
scious existence is a revelation of prime necessity be- 
fore a sub-revelation could be entertained. It therefore 
consigns every external thing to a subjective position, 
in comparison to the revelation of God. The mere ety- 
mology of words of which their standard meaning is 
protected by political power simply its own decree ; 
since it has no jurisdiction over what God shall reveal 
to man. The mere designating external things as "ob- 
jective" with the obvious purpose of giving external 
authority the appearance of being co-equal with the 
authority of God, could be readily instilled into the 
innocent mind of youth, but no scholar could be such 
and maintain such a distinct absurdity. 

The most ignorant human being knows he exists by 
reason of the direct touch of God to which circum- 
stance he depends for every moment of existence. If 



HUMAN EQUITY 349 

he can be trained or persuaded to believe that he is 
subjective to external surroundings in his relation to 
God, he becomes sub-human, as well as subjective to 
external authority ; since Abraham and his non-politi- 
cal decendants believed in the direct revelation of God 
there is no reason why any individual should be ex- 
cluded from such a remarkable event. 

Hebrew history presents a lesson to be compared 
with posterior events to verify the non-subjective char- 
acter of immediate revelation. The political priest- 
hood, distinct from the judges and prophets of the 
Hebrews, gave evidence of the possibility of the indi- 
vidual communion with God by reason of their secret 
divinations which could, in view of their political con- 
nection, have had no other purpose than the subju- 
gation of the common people quite as severe as their 
Egyptian oppressors. 

It follows that the political effort to monopolize 
whatever Spiritual manifestation is conceived by man, 
is a tacit admission that such relation is not only pos- 
sible, but wholly embraced in the universal principle 
of conception, identical with revelation, inasmuch as 
conception is equally as important as anything which 
could be revealed necessarily of a sub-character. The 
policy of maintaining a theory of subjective concep- 
tion is identical with the superficial effort derived from 
the common revelation of art as necessary to one per- 
son as another before even a sub-revelation could be 
transmitted or acquired. That is, the ability to under- 
stand must be prior to what can be comprehended ; and 
if such ability is not revealed energy, the co-equal of 
God, it is more perfect than any artificial exploit of 
man that history records. 



350 HUMAN EQUITY 

In order to separate the Spiritual from the material 
or political, the first point of observation is, there has 
never been any unity between energy and substance. 
That is to say, the Motor (energy) what moves things 
(material) has only a sentimental or theoretic connec- 
tion with each other, fully illustrated in Hebrew his- 
tory in the struggle between political authority and the 
Spiritual. It was like trying to serve two masters in 
opposition to each other, only one of which could be 
light, in the light of a revealed communication be- 
tween God and man, which Abraham not only reached 
but also practiced. This being the fundamental base 
of Spiritual revelation, it could be observed that all 
successive revelations followed in the same order of 
contention for priority of authority between the exter- 
nal artificially instituted by man, and the natural rep- 
resenting the exclusive relation between energy and 
individual man. If a single individual objects to recog- 
nizing the Motor of all things as a perfect God, his ef- 
fort to institute an ideal God on an artificial founda- 
tion, would be just as idolatrous in one form as an- 
other. 

The subtile discussions of the Greek scholars includ- 
ing radical conservative philosophers are amply re- 
corded in history and every variety of literature. It is 
the central point only that concerned posterity by rea- 
son of the mistakes the ancients made in seeking to 
elevate man to an objective height, over which no pred- 
icate could be affirmed. The wisdom of Socrates as 
described by Plato fails to recognize the absolute rela- 
tion between God and man outside of his individual 
convictions. The political situation a sentiment that 
pointed to human equity which would necessarily in- 



HUMAN EQUITY 35 I 

elude direct relations between God and individual 
man ; since authority in its effort to protect the supre- 
macy of the more intelligent over the lesser. It would 
lead to a conclusion that political authority was equal- 
ly as subjective as the individual to the one principle 
of revelation, that Socrates demonstrated to be exclu- 
sively individual, equally as distinct as Abraham. 

The efforts of Plato followed by Aristotle, to har- 
monize the relation between the Spiritual and political, 
was a failure in both cases. Their mistakes should be 
obvious to every honest person with courage enough 
to maintain the sacred relation between God and man 
to be distinctly prior to any relation between man and 
man. That is to say, if intelligence universally re- 
vealed to a common humanity can be elevated to a 
commanding position over its own source, it would in- 
volve the submission of man to man taking precedent 
over the authority of God. That this is a privilege of 
private judgment, it does not effect the general prin- 
ciple of man's relation to God. 

The political, supported by secular and scientific 
learning, enforced by the civil authority in control of 
physical strength, presents a chain of circumstances 
unbroken in opposition to the continual revelation of 
God to individual man. From Abraham to the Ameri- 
can Revolution, the civil and artificial authority con- 
tinue, practically unchecked beyond a slight modifica- 
tion of methods, to appease the persistency of man in 
exercising a freedom to which he has a clear title ; so 
that he knows it prior to any artificial effort externally 
applied to convince him to the contrary. 



35 2 



HUMAN EQUITY 



CHAPTER XXXVIII 



MODERN REFERENCES. 



SCIENCE is a principle as distinct from personality 
as revelation is from acquirements or sub-revela- 
tion. Man discovers and invents, subjective to revel- 
ation and objective to science, since the limit of science 
is to record what revelation, reveals to man. To con- 
found this principle between what is acquired and what 
is revealed is equivalent to confounding human under- 
standing. 

A direct communion with God is not a subordi- 
nate principle, since the reason to make it such is a 
function of the will. Whether God is known or un- 
known there must be a principle of perfection or even 
science would have no field of inquiry. Hence if God is 
imperfection as science would imply, by seeking a state 
of perfection, it neglects a very important feature of 
its search if perfection is unknowable ; for it would 
be equivalent to admitting that it was seeking an end 
predetermined to have no possible existence. Per- 
fection could be no less than God while science admits 
its imperfection by seeking an elevation for itself that 
would demonstrate the limit of intelligence proper, or 
knowledge improperly denned by science, which re- 
veals its design. 

To recognize that God is only a principle of perfec- 
tion, it would follow that His relation to man would 



HUMAN EQUITY 353 

?lso be perfect. Besides if He ever revealed Himself 
to man, it must have been to more than one, or the 
knowledge of His revelation would have been utterly 
lost since the advent of Abraham. Because it is af- 
firmed by some that God is unknowable it is far from 
convincing the balance of humanity who knows it to 
be a fact. No better proof exists than the finite char- 
acter of civil government that improves in proportion 
to the decline of its tyranny over individual man ; com- 
pelled by the refusal of the people at large to support 
it. It also proves that God does not direct the conduct 
of man who employs his colleective strength in obtain- 
ing an advantage over the weak. It would be obvious 
to any person not in search of an advantage over an- 
other, that a choice of conduct could both be universal, 
and also subject to an external directing influence. 

The Declaration of Independence constituted a new 
era of scarcely less importance to the progress of hu- 
man freedom than the revealed promise to Abraham 
followed by the advent of Christ exemplifying the re- 
lation of God to man. This tender shoot of purpose in 
defying external authority developed into an es- 
tablished form of government. It presents a feature, 
however, of remarkable consequences worthy of study 
by any person having more faith in the perfection of 
God in His relation to man when compared to the rela- 
tion of mankind toward each other. 

A person would deny his own existence, not to re- 
cognize that his revealed will constituted the privilege 
of choice between good and evil irrespective of exter- 
nal authority ; to accept which it would destroy the 
only value the will possesses. If any person could 
have a doubt about the freedom of the will and the 



354 



HUMAN EQUITY 



private judgment of individual man, it should be re- 
moved by the positive evidence of the first Congress of 
the American colonies. Human equity was recognized 
by the colonial Congress in perfect accord with the 
revelation of God to individual man ; but the Congress 
reserved its own relation as a representative body of 
the entire people ; to be determined after the result of 
the war, to transcend the will of the people. It was 
such a new principle of government that personal falli- 
bility could be charitably considered ; but if the pres- 
ent is to derive profit from the mistakes of the part the 
principle motive of the early Congress could be in- 
quired into to determine a reason for its making such 
a radical departure, after the close of the war, from 
what it declared so vigorously before the war had 
scarcely commenced. The simple exoteric character 
of the declaration of independence was not readily 
understood by the simple minds of America, but its 
inspiring echo encircled the entire earth. 

In order to separate the political from the Spiritual 
tentatively it would be necessary to observe the dis- 
tinction between an intrinsic principle and one speci- 
fically personal or empirical. An inanimate principle 
could compare with a straight line suggestive of a state 
of perfection that would not admit of a predicate. 
From a Spiritual point of view human equity is a 
straight line of perfection. This principle must have 
inspired the Continental Congress when it ratified the 
Declaration of Independence. It was a recognition of 
a right principle from which the Revolutionary war 
was inspired and fought to a finish. If the people had 
been told as distinctly as the Declaration of their rights 
were proclaimed that a legislative body assuming to 



HUMAN EQUITY 355 

possess absolute authority could be as tyrannical as a 
monarch, there would have been no motive in fighting 
for an object knowing in advance that the object would 
deny its own action for the purpose of betraying the 
confidence of the common soldiers without whom the 
revolution would have failed. 

To betray moral simplicity by a declaration of hu- 
man equity in accord with the perfect revelation of 
God could never be justified by any apology of neces- 
sity. If civilization depends upon betraying the confi- 
dence of beings in a common image, human conduct 
would have to be absolved from any responsibility. 
That is to say, if a collective body in whom the un- 
cultured were persuaded to confide, were imposed 
upon by reason of their weakness of understanding, 
the question of responsibility would have to be denied 
entirely, or it would rest upon the collective body, or 
the individual that acted with a knowledge that it was 
wrong. 

When the same body of men who ratified the declar- 
ation of the unqualified equity of humanity could de- 
liberate for months to determine whether it would be 
safe to trust the common people, who had fought for 
the principle eight years, trusting impicitly that Con- 
gress was as much attached to human equity as thej> 
were. If there was no other reason than that which 
the Colonial Congress of America evinced to prove the 
non-interference of God in directing human conduct, 
the two documents endorsed by the same body would 
distinctly prove it. One declares for human equity in 
accord with the direct revelation of God, while the 
o+her, the United States Constitution, is a witness 
against itself, since God could not reveal a clear title to 



356 



HUMAN EQUITY 



each and every individual, and also direct a collective 
body of any character to deprive them of it. It is 
shrewdly observed by objective sagacity that God is 
not subjective to the opinion of man since the principle 
of perfection cannot vacilate and also be perfect, any 
more than a straight line can be straightened. 

To hide behind the fallibility of man as an apology 
for misconduct, will not also hide the motive that 
prompted the act. Two motives distinctly appear pub- 
licly exhibited from the same collective body, one of 
which as distinct as the revelation of existence, 
the other disguised in esoteric phraseology that 
practically established an inequality between ruler 
and ruled. This feature is as conspicuous in the 
Constitution of the United States as its absence is in 
the Declaration of Independence. The political mo- 
tive, however, is the same in both cases, the first ap- 
pealed to the natural conception of freedom common to 
animals and human alike to persuade the people to 
fight; the second document appeals to the directing in- 
fluence of God to justify the strong in artificial acquire- 
ments in oppressing the illiterate by reason of their 
ignorance. In brief it was the same principle in prac- 
tice that was denied to the mother country in precept. 

The common people were in precisely the same rela- 
tive condition in respect to a civil government after 
the war as before ; more proper, however, in distin- 
guishing between a civil and Spiritual government, to 
call the civil artificial. England recognized the inde- 
pendence of the American colonies which has never 
been ratified by Congress to this day. 

Men who are inflated with artificial acquirements to 
the extent of believing that external authority, neces- 
sarily artificial, can supersede the revealed, are not re- 



HUMAN EQUITY 357 

sponsible for their abnormal condition, for when a man 
believes he is right he would also be obliged to believe 
that anyone holding a different opinion was wrong. 

The more ignorant a person is the less difficulty 
there would be in winning his confidence, which would 
doubtless be admitted without much objection. Hence 
the difference between the Declaration of Indepen- 
dence and the Federal Constitution was not considered 
of any importance by the great majority of the Ameri- 
can people. The representative man proclaimed tha<- 
to be a citizen of the United States was equivalent to 
being a sovereign individual in his own right so long 
as it did not interfere with the equal right of others. 
No government was considered to be necessary so far 
as local affairs were concerned. In fact, law and order 
was never better preserved than during the period 
when every man appeared to feel himself to be the 
equal of any other man. The laws of the several 
States were supposed to be subjective to Federal law. 
Industry and commerce flourished as never before on 
the face of the earth. It was fully believed that Chris- 
tian principles were recognized even if all the people 
did not worship the same form of religion. The Fed- 
eral government had no more use for its Constitution 
than for the picture of the battle of Bunker Hill. 

For more than two generations (80 years) the people 
generally were proud of their country when the Con- 
stitution sprung into life like a long forgotten docu- 
ment. An inoffensive colored man, more white than 
black, had lived in Boston for a number of years when 
he was claimed to be the property of another man. 
His only "crime" was that he had fled from a service 
that was demanded of him against his will or voluntary 



358 



HUMAN EQUITY 



consent. He was delivered to the custody of his mas- 
ter, escorted to the ship by two companies of Federal 
soldiers in the presence of the indignant inhabitants of 
Boston ; the indignation soon spread to the entire 
Northern States. It was the one act, declared by Web- 
ster to be constitutional, that made the civil war in- 
evitable. 

It does not concern human equity, for that is an in- 
trinsic principle of a higher order than the Constitution 
of the United States. Neither is it necessary to consi- 
der its ethical features which were thoroughly 
thrashed out at the time. What is important, however, 
is to observe that the common people, including the 
immigrants from Europe, discovered by one impulse 
that confidence in popular government had been be- 
trayed by the very men who were prone to speak of 
themselves as "servants of the peaple." To make the 
Constitution practical in accord with human equity, 
the common people, exclusive of the uncommon — the 
unequal — interpreted the fifth article of the Constitu- 
tion without any appeal to technical difficulties. An- 
other feature of the civil war distinctly applies to the 
present, for the American people, however, numerous, 
or of whatever nationality, they will never cheerfuly 
submit to a Congress that deliberately betrays their 
confidence. It takes very little to win the confidence 
of a person familiarly called ignorant, but it will take 
more than the average ability of the present College 
professors to restore it after the confidence of th cred- 
ulous is betrayed. 

If any person can so cultivate a belief as to believe 
that human virtue is not preserved in ignorance, a 
thorough study of history including the Bible should 



HUMAN EQUITY 359 

enlighten such a person. The common people do not 
care a "continental," (to use a common phrase) for Ro- 
man jurisprudence, for the very atmosphere of Amer- 
ica is impregnated with freedom; and no person will 
be a contented slave or permit his children to become 
such to the extent of his ability to prevent it. The ef- 
fort to so educate youth that he will become a "good 
citizen" is a blind form of slavery. It will consign such 
a citizen to a penitentiary before he would be deprived 
of his natural freedom by any artificial process that 
the greed of man can invent. Science will never dis- 
cover a method by which "two masters" can be served 
successfully, for an artificially refined human being 
can never suffer a feeling of reproach, after the natu- 
ral has been thoroughly extracted from his constitu- 
tion. 

The fact that the Continental Congress reconsidered 
its action of devotion to the principle of human equity, 
which is no less than Christianity in purpose, even al- 
lowing that humanity was so disposed to evil that he 
must remain indefinitely in a degenerate condition. 
Now the early Congress must have acted upon some 
reasonable authority of which only two could have 
been present ; the first of which was to establish a 
democratic form of government in accord with the 
Declaration of Independence. The other was an ad- 
mission that the community of States and individuals 
were not capable of self-government. 

The early Congress was flattered by the confidence 
of the common people which was evident by their en- 
thusiasm. It could readily be conjectured that though 
enthusiasm deterred Congress from establishing an 
aristocratic monarchy after Washington refused to be 



360 



HUMAN EQUITY 



crowned, the wisdom of Washington lies in his recog- 
nition of the principles upon which the colonies op- 
posed the tyranny of England, for it was the non-rec- 
cgnition of human equity that caused the war to be so 
vigorously pursued. Nothing but the popularity of 
Washington prevented the Congress from laying him 
aside and smothering the little spark of liberty that 
was struggling to survive. The person is dull indeed 
not to observe the significance of the dispute of the 
most distinguished men of America struggling to a 
purpose which was anything but a recognition of per- 
sonal liberty which could not be stamped out, since 
the people gave such evidence of understanding that 
to rule them to the advantage of personal cupidity de- 
manded the most sagacious efforts of a political nature 
to secure the confidence of the people, while the real 
motive was ultra selfishness. 

The important question of suffrage was left for the 
States to regulate, except the status of the slave who 
was recognized to be only three-fifths of a man. New 
Hampshire of the original states was alone in recog- 
nizing an unqualified manhood suffrage, except 
women who were happily considered at the time to be 
superior to the degradation of politics. New Hamp- 
shire's example formed the basis of human equity as 
a universal principle, for all the other States were 
compelled to follow her lead by recognizing manhood 
suffrage. These references are only important to show 
that liberty is not conferred upon man by his rulers, 
but instead are deferred until the individual develops 
courage enough to defend his clear title to manhood, 
or his direct relation with God that no external auth- 
ority can deprive him of without his individual con- 
sent. 



HUMAN EQUITY 36 1 

The artificial effort to enforce legal authority in op- 
position to the normal and natural is just as impos- 
sible under modern forms of government as it was in 
ancient times. The difference between the direct au- 
thority of God and political pretensions to the same ef- 
fect is identical with the difference between love and 
fear. The former is obeyed cheerfully in proportion 
as the latter is recognized to be false. Civil govern- 
ment will betray the confidence of its supporters, 
while a confidence in God is not dependent upon artifi- 
cial authority. Obedience externally taught by means 
of artificial dialects (artificfiial language) is no com- 
parison to language proper (natural language) which 
is the universal language that God communicates di- 
rect to the individual who must always choose be- 
tween the moral and legal, to which he shall render 
obedience. To obey external authority in opposition to 
the internal Nature must be degraded to accommodate 
the ideal supremacy of the artificial. The presence of 
man on the earth is also the presence of God, even by 
artificial acknowledgment. Hence the artificial is al- 
ways subjective to the natural, the proof of which 
is the continued presence of man on the earth since the 
artificial effort at destruction meets with no success. 



362 



HUMAN EQUITY 



CHAPTER XXXIX. 



SUMMARY. 



A Clear title to private judgment in defense of spon- 
taneous revelation, opposed to any political claim 
to external jurisdiction, is the point of observation. 
Also to communicate in whatever relative terms, either 
natural, artificial, or both, that the ability of the free 
agent will permit, is equally as clear as the first flash of 
light that reveals to the conscience the presence ot 
God. If not God, no man has a better title to know 
Him, than the individual responsible for his private 
opinion. The grammarian who is able to determine 
what is ungrammatical admits of understanding what 
a subject means, by criticising it ; hence if a subject 
conveys to another what it means and also violates the 
object of grammar, the essence of which being under- 
standing grammar would be to blame rather than an 
innocent subject testifying to a knowledge of God. 

To know is knowledge, and to know God is an in- 
violate privilege of private judgment ; and no threat- 
ened punisment from either civil authority or any 
authority necessarily external, can in nowise disturb 
the relation between God and individual man. The re- 
lation is inviolate, by reason of the entire absence of 
choice, inasmuch as the relation with a Creator is con- 
cerned. Hence if the first flash of light conceived by 
the individual is not to know, it not only suggests that 



HUMAN EQUITY 363 

knowledge is God but establishing the fact beyond any 
possibility of man proving it not to be a fact. Hence 
the absurdity of imparting a fact to a fact, makes it 
impossible to teach knowledge to knowledge, regard- 
less of man's ability to disguise his motive by dialect- 
ical acquisition. 

Spontaneous revelation is to be conscious of knowl- 
edge, a communion with God, to affirm which no man 
was ever born to either convey the knowledge to an- 
other nor prove the knowledge to be false. Hence to 
teach knowledge, virtue, or morality is impossible by 
reason of whatever is spontaneous is natural and non- 
transferable from man to man. Education or training 
is limited to art and confined to the realm of the artifi- 
cial, involving all that is evil in the conduct of man, 
neutralized by the predominating influence of good 
that is spontaneously revealed to entire humanity. If 
no other proof is possible than the individual affirma- 
tion of a knowledge of God other than the conscious 
revelation of the absolute direct title to knowledge im- 
possible to be imparted externally, the freedom in- 
volved in such knowledge is only conditioned by the 
courage to defend it. 

Politics is a science of abstracting revenue to sup- 
port nonproducers, besides seeking to win the confi- 
dence of crudility to protect the source of revenue. 
Science picks up what the inventors drop behind. It 
was never known to discover anything until after it oc- 
curred. Also the same with grammarian strictly con- 
fined to explaining dialects after the spontaneous rev- 
elation of natural language was previously revealed. 

After a repeated betrayal of confidence individual 
man wakes up sufficiently to observe that external 



3<H 



HUMAN EQUITY 



authority is only artificial, and his own fault if he per- 
mits the circumstance to interfere with his right to 
private judgment and personal communion with God. 
For this reason he ceases to vote when he discovers he 
is merely voted by external influences to foster cupid- 
ity. Politics and external authority will continue as 
long as persuasion, force and false promises will induce 
people to support it. 

If society and the State depends upon voting the 
voter, it would be no less the privilege of the voter to 
resolve that he would not vote for any man for any of- 
fice who would not previously declare publicly that 
"he would support the referendum principle of govern- 
ment, for no man is fitted to be an official of a Republic 
parading itself as democratic without being willing to 
submit his acts for endorsement to the voters who 
elected him. Whatever effect it would have upon so- 
ciety, it would be human equity in accord with spon- 
taneous revelation and prevent the possibility of an- 
other civil war. 



The End. 



The Economy of Education 



by W. A. STURDY 



Boston, J- D. BONNELL & SON, 1909. 384 pages. 



WE have had the occasion (see the number of the Economista, 
September, 19, 1907) to call the attention of the readers 
to the very important work of the same author "The 
Degeneracy of Aristocracy " ; to-day we point to another work, not 
'ess important, The Economy of Education, a work well conceived 
and perfectly developed, so that one can say that it is perfect in many 
of its parts. 

The Author begins to study the method of education since the 
child's birth, following the devolopement of it during the different 
stages of life, not only from the side of instruction, viz ; of the intellec- 
tual development, but also from psychological side, viz; the de- 
veloping of the moral part of the individual. From the acquisiton of 
the faculty of speech and choice of words, the author passes to the 
pedagogical precepts, to the scientific studies and to the first battles of 
the idealistic conflicts, with the chapters on temptations, on demonol 
ogy, on transcendentalism, on liberties, etc. Then he takes the 
youth, who begins to be already a man into the battle of public life 
into the different forms of associations, into the desire for independence 
into responsibility, etc. 

No stage of life is neglected, religion, politics, economic activity, 
duty, right, etc., form as many monographies skillfully exposed and 
some-times in a very original way. 

Thus the work of Mr. Sturdy has come out as a precious manual of 
education expressed in an original and convincing way. 

Translation Jrom fECUNOMlSTA Anno XXXVI — N. 184 
— 29 Agosto. Vol XL., Page 556. 



W. A. STURDY 

The Degeneracy of Aristocracy 



Boston, J. D. BONNELL & SON, J907. 36* pages. 



TRANSLATION FROM ITALIAN 

PEW books offer, as this, a chance to meditate over human 
events and the manifold aspects in which they may be con- 
sidered. The attempt to reduce the whole history of the 
nations to a simple formula, very short and comprehensive, 
is not new ; but just because the thinkers have given us innumerable 
formulas, every attempt of such a kind has miscarried, and it only 
shows that the different phases the strong social events offer us, cannot 
be allembraced in one glance and described or analyzed by one 
mind. This book, no doubt, is unusually suggestive, so strong is the 
rigorous logic in which the author closely pursues his reasoning. But 
the reader cannot help rebelling, when he sees that his own thought 
is forced by other's thought to chisel his ideas in a prefix plan and the 
rebellion makes him think upon and set apart the truth from the 
sophism, also in the case in which the two forms are presented in a 
way so alike, that can be confounded with the Degeneration of 
Aristocracy, which always attempts to revive the whole human 
history. On one side there is nature (democracy), on rhe other side 
art (aristocracy), but nature tries to become art and therefore to revive 
the aristocracy. 

This is the fundamental thought of the author around which he 
ties, step by step, the historic events of humanity, with wideness of 
ideas and much learning. 

One finds among the thirty-seven chapters of the book, some 
of them) full of acute and also original observations, as those on 
Schools and their influence and that on "The Rivalry between 
Culture and the Dollar," etc. 

We recommend to our readers this book as a very interesting in 
great part. 

From the Italian Magazine " U ECONOMIST A." 
September 29, 1907. 



TO THE TRADE! 

Economy of Education. 

by V. A. STURDY 
HIS PREVIOUS EFFORTS ARE: 

"Tne Degeneracy of Aristocracy 

" Right and Wrong" "The Open Door" 

These works all treat of Democracy, Christian Unity, and the 
oppressive character of Aristocracy, with Suggestive Remedies for existing 
Social and Political Disturbances. 



Comments of the Press 

" Religion was always free and recognized by Moses, but the intro- 
duction of kings put an embargo upon the excercise of religious freedom, 
which continued in force until the United States duplicated the recog- 
nition of Moses. "The Degeneracy of Aristocracy" is published as an 
appeal for the recognition of human justice." — Boston Herald. 

The progress of democracy, in its eternal struggle with the spirit and 
institution of aristocracy, is a favorite and fascinating topic to the 
American student of history. "The Degeneracy of Aristocracy," by 
W. A Sturdy, undertakes to show by the retrospect of history that dem- 
ocracy is to be so totally triumphant that an already declining aristocracy 
will be entirely swept away. — Boston Globe. 

The book is, as the author states, " an appeal for the recognition of 
human justice." He not only outlines the problems but solutions as well. 
It would be preposterous to believe that all the author outlines will be 
accomplished in this generation, at least, but the power of the book still 
remains. A careful reading will open such new lines of thought that the 
reader cannot fail to be impressed and instructed. Not the least charm 
of the book is the forceful epigrams of which Mr. Sturdy is master. — 
The Attleboro Daily Sun. 

BOSTON: 

J. D. BONNELL & SON 

And at all Book Stores 
PRICE $1.00 PER COPY 



8 191! 



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